Leadership Behaviors and Mentoring Effectiveness

Abstract

Good teacher mentors do not merely refer to expert teachers. They are the mentors who display various leadership behaviors and styles to encourage and support mentees in achieving their goals. This paper explores mentors’ leadership styles and behaviors in the Chinese education context. A qualitative research was designed and carried out. Analysis of the mentors’ responses to interview questions suggested that the mentors have been “leading†the less experienced new teachers into their new profession by using the non-authoritarian directive leadership behavior throughout the mentoring process. However, there still remain some contextual factors that may influence their effectiveness, including the lack of contextual supports and pretermission of training for the mentors.