Nordic Teacher Induction (NTI)

The purpose of the network is to focus on the transition from professional education to professional practice as a teacher in kindergarten and school, the situation of newly qualified teachers in the Nordic countries, as well as to study and discuss conditions for newly qualified teachers continued professional development as a professional practitioners in the first five years as teachers in kindergarten and school. The network develops knowledge and carry out comparative studies and mapping studies, as well as share experiences and ideas about follow-up arrangements for further professional development for newly qualified teachers. This can help ensure that experiences about mentoring schemes for new graduates are shared, researched and inspired across national borders and can lead to joint policy-making in the field in the Nordic region.

The network was established in August 2017. Comparative Nordic studies and joint surveys contribute to joint knowledge development in the Nordic region. The network has two areas of impact: the cross-Nordic and the national. Through deeper knowledge of our Nordic neighbours' experience and practice, each individual partner in the network will have a better basis for following up their work nationally. This can involve various surveys and studies, as well as contributing to policy making.

The network's knowledge and experience contributes to:

• recruit, develop and retain newly qualified teachers in kindergartens and schools. The network's contribution will primarily be to study the transition from teacher education to professional fields by focusing on the wishes and needs of the graduating students
• safeguard knowledge about the needs of newly qualified teachers, which can contribute to support schemes for new teachers so that children and pupils receive a good educational offer
• develop good induction programs for newly qualified teachers where qualified mentoring forms an essential element of the measure
• quality development in the sector through collaboration between teacher training courses, teacher organisations, kindergartens and schools. The network's contribution is to disseminate research and knowledge about the newly qualified teachers' background from the teacher training courses and their competence which can enrich the professional field.

New Teachers in Nordic Countries – Ecologies of Mentoring and Induction

Synopsis

This research based anthology is the result of a collaboration between teacher educators, researchers and representatives of teacher organizations in Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Some initial results of the studies introduced in this book have been shared with the international research community in the field at conferences in Europe in 2018 and 2019. In this anthology, we present and discuss significant parts of this material, aiming at stimulating a research-oriented and evidence-based development of induction and mentoring for newly qualified teachers.

Project periods