About the New Teacher Mentoring Project


What is the New Teacher Mentoring Project?

 

Historically in British Columbia, the induction of new teachers into the teaching profession has been delivered through initiatives and resources within individual school districts and locals. Although there are many examples of excellent induction programs throughout the province, including effective mentorship programs, the implementation of practices and procedures often lack systemic vision, long-range planning, training for participants, and dependable funding. The past and current experience for new teachers entering the profession varies widely across the province, adversely affected by shrinking budgets, employment instability, unmanageable assignments, isolation in more rural areas, and lack of inclusion within collegial communities.

The New Teacher Mentoring Project (NTMP) has emerged from aligned interest within the BC Teachers’ Federation, the University of British Columbia, and the BC School Superintendents’ Association, to seek a more formalized and integrated system of support for inducting, developing, and retaining teachers in BC. The current Ministry of Education BC Education Plan also acknowledges the complexity of teachers’ roles and identifies mentoring as an integral means of supporting ongoing professional learning, both in teachers’ formative years and throughout their career.

A grant from the Ministry of Education was first approved in Spring 2012 to provide the NTMP with funds to develop structured mentor programs in school districts that did not yet have formal mentorship or had lost their program.

 

Principles of the NTMP are:

 

  • to provide a coherent, research-based, and sustainable system of support for teachers in their early years throughout the province 
  • to be responsive to the diversity and distinctiveness of district cultures and practices in all regions of BC
  • ensure that mentorship is non-evaluative and non-remedial, and that participation is voluntary
  • demonstrate joint commitment from the participating district administration and teacher union
  • to reach out to educators in rural areas of BC
  • to provide professional learning through inquiry and critical reflection on practice.

 

 

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