Practice Architectures of Peer-Group Mentoring in New Teachers’ Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was, first, to examine Finnish peer-group mentoring practices and how they are prefigured by practice arrangements (practice architectures) in the Finnish educational context (practice landscape), based on certain historically developed notions that define the role and task of the teachers (practice traditions). Second, this study aimed to provide research-based knowledge for the application of peer learning to teachers’ professional learning and development. This study utilises the theory of practice architectures as the theoretical framework and analytical tool. According to the theory of practice architectures, practices are enabled and constrained by cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements, which are specific to the site of the practice. This article-based dissertation consists of four sub-studies, of which three were interrogation of the Finnish model of peer-group mentoring, and one sub-study examined the methodological view for the conceptual investigation of peer-group mentoring. Methodologically, this dissertation represents qualitative research in the fields of teacher education and mentoring. Several datasets were utilised in this study. Empirical data in Studies 1 and 2 were collected in teachers’ focus group interviews, and teachers’ essay writings were gathered using the Method of Empathy Bases Stories. Study 3 was a review article of 46 research papers on peer-group mentoring. Study 4 was an autoethnographical investigation of the research process, and data consisted of self-reflective writings of the four research participants in Studies 1 and 2. The main findings of this study are that peer-group mentoring supports teachers’ professional development and that it can be used for the induction of new teachers and for facilitating teachers’ peer learning. However, the national practice architectures do not sufficiently support the organisation of mentoring in Finland. The problems lie particularly in the material–economic and social–political practice architectures, which are manifested in the absence of national funding and collective agreements as necessary conditions for the establishment of mentoring.