New Teachers in Nordic Countries – Ecologies of Mentoring and Induction

Knut-Rune Olsen is associate professor in pedagogy at the University of South-Eastern Norway. His particular interests are educational guidance and induction and mentoring for newly qualified teachers. He has participated in the Norwegian Network for Mentoring Newly Qualified Teachers in Kindergartens and Schools since 2003. Olsen has edited anthologies and written several articles on guidance, mentoring and induction. Latest book: Lesson Study and teacher learning published at Gyldendal Akademisk in 2017.

Eva Bjerkholt is a researcher/ teacher educator at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) and associate professor II at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN). She is the leader of the Norwegian Network for Mentoring Newly Qualified Teachers (Directorate of Education and Training), the leader of the network Newly Qualified Teachers and Induction: A Nordic Cross-sectorial Network. – (NTI) (Nordplus Horizontal) and convener of the Nordic Educational Research Association’s (NERA) - network 25: Guidance, Counselling and Mentoring. Bjerkholt is one of the two leader of the research group “Supervision and mentoring in education and in teacher profession” (USN).

Hannu L. T. Heikkinen  is professor of Education at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER), University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He has written on teacher education and professional development of teachers, especially from the view of induction and mentoring of newly qualified teachers. He is one of the developers of the Finnish peer group mentoring model (PGM). Heikkinen is the link convener of EERA network ‘Professional Learning and Development’ and holds adjunct professorships in University of Tampere, University of Jyväskylä and Åbo Akademi University in Finland, and in Griffith University and Charles Sturt University in Australia.

Birna Svanbjörnsdóttir  is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Akureyri. She has a long teaching career in primary school and was the director for The Centre of School Development at the University 2010–2016. Birna completed a Ph.D. in Educational sciences from University of Iceland 2015. Her main emphasises in research are teacher development, mentoring and professional learning communities. She is the supervisor for the mentoring program at the University of Akureyri.

Hildur Hauksdóttir completed BA degree in English from the University of Iceland in 2000, a teacher´s degree from the University of Akureyri in 2005 and a master´s degree from the same institute in 2016. In her master´s studies, Hildur specialised in mentoring and professional development. She has worked as a secondary teacher and project manager in Akureyri Junior College since 2004.

María Steingrímsdóttir is associate professor at the Faculty of Education in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Akureyri. She has a long teaching career in elementary schools. María completed M.Ed. degree, specialising in management, from the Faculty of Education at the University of Akureyri in 2005. Her main research interests are mentoring of new teachers, teacher education, and teachers’ professional development.

Lisbeth Lunde Frederiksen is Ph.D. in educational research. She is Head of Research at the Program for Guidance and mentorship at VIA University College in Aarhus, Denmark. She has worked with professional development of teachers since 1993 and has almost as many years of experience with research management. She is an expert in methods and approaches in educations. Her particular interests in research is relationship between theory and practice in higher education relationship between profession and education, counselling and mentoring, educational guidance and leadership continuing professional development and development of professional identity. She has more than 90 publications, including books, newspaper articles and journals.

Göran Fransson is a Professor in Curriculum Studies and an Associate Professor of Education at the Faculty of Education and Business Studies, University of Gävle, Sweden. His research centers on digital technologies in educational contexts, teacher commitment, teachers’ professional development and induction and mentoring in different professions, with a primary focus on teachers. He has published in different international journals, books and anthologies, most recently in The Wiley-Blackwell International Handbook of mentoring (2020), with a chapter focusing Mentoring Policies: Possibilities, Challenges and Future Directions.

Ilona Markkanen is a Project Researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER), University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has participated in research and development work on teacher induction in Finland and has contributed in a number of projects on teacher education, related to physical and health education, attractiveness of teaching profession and peer group mentoring (PGM). She has been working as the coordinator of the Finnish Network for Peer Group Mentoring since 2010, and her responsibilities have included, for example, organising training for teachers who study as PGM mentors.

Matti Pennanen is a Project Researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER), University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His main research interests are on teachers’ professional development and collaborative practices in the Finnish education system, including tutoring teachers to improve their digital teaching skills and peer group mentoring (PGM). Pennanen is currently working for his doctoral study in Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, and the research theme of his dissertation is related to the practices of the Finnish peer group mentoring model.

Päivi Tynjälä is a Professor of Education at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER), University of Jyväskylä,Finland. Her main research area is learning and teaching in higher education. Her studies focus particularly on learning at the interface between higher education and the world of work, and the professional development of teachers. She has published widely both nationally and internationally and served as an Editor-in-Chief in Educational Research Review. Currently she is an editorial board member of Educational Research Review, and Vocations and Learning. She is a co-editor of the book Peer-group Mentoring for Teacher Development.

Eve Eisenschmidt is a Professor of educational leadership at Tallinn University. She has been active in development of teacher education policy on the national level, e.g. preparing the implementation of the induction program for beginning teachers in Estonia, teacher’s competence framework and developing initial teacher education program at the university. She has worked as expert an international level and external evaluator of teacher education program in several countries. Her current research areas are professional development of teachers, school improvement and leadership.

Katrin Poom-Valickis is a Professor of teacher education at Tallinn University. She has been a project leader and co-coordinator in several projects related to the development of Teacher Education and member of the expert group who prepared the implementation of the induction year for novice teachers in Estonia. Her main research interest is focused on the teacher’s professional development, more precisely how to support future teachers’ learning and development during their studies and first years of work. She is author and co-author of more than 45 scientific papers in the field of Educational Sciences.

Åse Bonde is educated as a teacher from Copenhagen Teacher Training College, and has worked for many years as a teacher. Åse has a thorough knowledge of the teaching profession and has participated in a long series of pedagogical development projects. Åse is a trained student-teacher mentor and external examiner of practice at teacher-training colleges and has taken part in the training of many future teachers. Åse Bonde is employed in the Danish Union of Teachers. Among her tasks is the continuous development of the teaching profession and newly qualified teachers.