Enhancing the Wellbeing of Novice and Mid-career School Principals Through ONSIDE Mentoring: Unidirectional and Bidirectional Approaches

In this chapter, the authors provide an original account of the introduction of mentoring schemes for school principals in southeast England. In a context of head teacher shortage, stress and attrition, two school districts commissioned the support of mentoring scholars to introduce mentoring for principals of primary and secondary (K-12) schools. Both schemes were based on the ONSIDE mentoring framework (Hobson, 2020), with one scheme establishing unidirectional relationships involving experienced school principals acting as mentors to relative novices, and the other adopting bidirectional peer mentoring relationships between more established principals. Data relating to the enactment and impact of principal mentoring were generated via multiple methods including focus groups and online surveys with participants acting as mentors and/or mentees. This chapter addresses the nature and impacts of mentoring relationships across the two schemes and factors influential in bringing about positive impacts, with a particular focus on participants’ occupational wellbeing.