Chapter 5: Supporting Novice Teachers in Egypt: The Development and Evaluation of an Induction/Mentoring Program

As part of a comprehensive reform effort, the Egyptian government developed an Induction/Mentoring policy for beginning teachers. The policy and the ensuing program were intended to complement, and often replace, pre-service teacher preparation and offer newly hired assistant teachers systemic, reliable support. They included empowerment features that required a role change among participants. Some of these transformations were unexpected by the education system so their reverberations led to a disequilibrium that still is being felt, especially in light of the recent change of government in 2011. This chapter describes the development of the policy and implementation of the successful Induction/Mentoring program, with particular focus on the aspect of change.