MENTORING OF NEWLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract

This paper has one primary objective. It sets out to critically reflect on different facets of mentoring of newly qualified secondary school teachers in Zambia so that readers may have a better understanding of the concept of mentoring, its benefits and how and why mentoring works. For purposes of this paper, a newly qualified teacher (hereafter referred to as NQT) refers to a certified teacher who has worked for a period ranging between 0-24 months. To understand the concept of NQT mentoring and the needs of NQTs, a review of the significant professional and popular literature was warranted. This section of the paper does just that by reviewing literature relevant to gaining a deeper understanding of mentoring of newly qualified teachers. This review of the literature helped the researcher to critically engage with how the different authors conceptualise mentoring with the intention of arriving at a definition. This paper evaluates the global perspective to the need for mentoring of NQTs through a review of research-based literature in line with the following themes: the concept of mentoring through which diverse definitions of the concept of mentoring from a global usage are discussed, challenges that NQTs face in their new work environments and the purpose and goals of mentoring. It also looks at the benefits of mentoring, its weaknesses as well as gaps in the literature on mentoring of newly qualified teachers.