School leadership mentoring across four European educational contexts: an exploratory qualitative study

Abstract

Over the past decades, school leadership has become a central element in educational reform, school improvement, and organizational effectiveness across education systems worldwide. Nevertheless, European education systems continue to reflect diverse governance arrangements shaped by national trajectories and institutional legacies. Although school leadership is widely recognized as a key determinant of educational effectiveness, comparatively limited research has examined how mentoring for school leaders is configured within distinct governance contexts. Addressing this gap, this study undertakes an analysis of six leadership trajectories from four European countries selected for their contrasting governance orientations: Portugal and Spain as cases reflecting traditions that tend to be more centralized, and Belgium and the Netherlands as cases characterized by a tendency toward greater decentralization and stronger school-level autonomy. Drawing on a critical examination of legislative and regulatory frameworks, complemented by in-depth interviews with school leaders, the research analyses how institutional configurations shape both access to leadership positions and the design, enactment, and perceived value of mentoring practices. Across the six leadership trajectories analyzed, participants consistently highlighted the importance of structured mentoring as a mechanism for reducing professional isolation, supporting leadership learning, and facilitating sustainable transitions into leadership roles. By integrating governance analysis with leadership development processes, the study advances a governance-sensitive conceptualization of mentoring as a structurally embedded mechanism for professional learning, contributing theoretically and empirically to contemporary debates on educational leadership in Europe.