Mentor teachers’ motivations and implications for mentoring style and enthusiasm

Using expectancy-value theory, this cross-sectional study examines the extent to which the expectations and values mentor teachers attach to mentoring are associated with their mentoring styles and enthusiasm. Path-analytical results of N = 189 Austrian mentor teachers surveyed in 2022 showed that high expectations of success and high attribution of values related to the social utility of mentoring are associated with self-assessed constructive mentoring. Transmissive behavior correlated positively with extrinsic personal utility value. Enthusiasm is high when mentors have a strong intrinsic motivation and attach high intrinsic personal utility value to mentoring. These findings contribute to knowledge on factors shaping mentoring quality.