Chapter 1: Introduction: Mentoring as a Facilitator of Wellbeing in Schools

Acclaimed for its multiple benefits, mentoring is a widely recognized and implemented practice in the field of education. The overarching dimension of mentoring, commonly accepted across scholars, is that mentoring is a developmental relationship (Domingues & Kochan, 2020). Mentoring entails forming a mutually supportive, trusting, and meaningful association between individuals with differing levels of experience, expertise, and knowledge in particular contexts. Mentoring is based on a process of “critical friend” (Costa & Kallick, 1993) who provides assessment feedback to an individual—a student, a teacher, or an administrator—or to a group. A critical friend is a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critique of a person’s work as a friend. “A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward” (p. 50) and is an advocate for the success of that work. At its core, mentoring is about helping, advising, supporting, and guiding mentees or proteges to gain a wide variety of skills, abilities, and attributes. Research indicates that mentoring facilitates the growth and learning of mentees, reduces stress, increases their motivation, and creates a safe context for them to achieve success and develop independence, selfconfidence, decision-making and problem-solving skills (Allen & Eby, 2007; Lacey, 2000; Lankau & Scandura, 2002; Hobson et al., 2009; Portner, 2008).