Novice principals’ perceptions of their mentoring process in early career stage: the key role of mentor-protégé relations

The purpose of the current study was to explore new Israeli principals’ perceptions, during the first three years in post, of the impact of their mentoring process on their leadership experiences. Based on 12 interviews with newly appointed school principals in the Israeli State Education System, the study found that many of them indicated that their mentor gave them professional and practical advice and performance feedback, especially on technical and administrative issues rather than on issues related to instructional leadership. In addition, the new principals shed light on the significant impact of proper educational and emotional matching between the mentor and the new principal on the mentoring process. We suggest some practical implications for establishing effective mentoring programs for new principals at the end of the paper.