The ‘Butterfly Effect’ of Mentoring Practices in School-University Partnerships

Understood through the aperture of small and often unintended actions that produce lasting impacts, this chapter draws conceptually on the metaphor of the ‘butterfly effect’ to explore the unexpected outcomes for leaders involved in large-scale school-university partnerships developing mentor training for teachers. The broader program of research explores the dynamic of mentoring as experienced between pre-service teachers, mentors, and established school leaders. This dynamic is achieved through the development of school mentors’ active participation in a multi-stage mentor development program in the state of Victoria, Australia. This project sought large-scale system transformation, relying on contextual adaptation of mentoring practices enabled through school-university partnerships. To improve mentoring practices is to improve teacher efficacy and enhance the potential for sustainable, longer-term change in mentoring practices that support graduate capability. This co-designed model ensured the maximum impact of the school-university partnership at a time when the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic were only beginning to be felt across the teaching profession. As issues of teacher workforce supply in Australia escalate, the importance of mentoring through effective school-university partnerships becomes an important feature of retention strategies now and into the future.