Investigating the MEL framework: exploring demographic patterns in mentor emotional capacity

Purpose This paper investigates how mentors' capacity to navigate emotional labour varies across demographic and professional characteristics, with particular attention to the relative influence of teaching experience versus mentoring experience. Drawing on five validated scales from the Mentoring as Emotional Labour (MEL) framework (Relihan and O'Donovan, 2026), the study explores how the framework can help shed light on mentoring in initial teacher education (ITE). In doing so, it challenges the assumption that mentoring is simply an extension of teaching and demonstrates the utility of the MEL scales as a tool for capturing mentors' emotional labour capacity. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey of mentors (N = 341) across Australian education sectors examined variation in scores on the five MEL scales. Rasch-calibrated logit scores were analysed in SPSS to identify group differences, associations and predictors of emotional labour in relation to teaching experience, mentoring experience, gender and sector. Findings Mentoring experience, not teaching experience, was the strongest predictor of mentors' capacity to navigate the emotional demands of mentoring. Gender showed no statistically significant effects, and no sectoral differences reached statistical significance. These results confirm the importance of conceiving of and treating, mentoring as a distinct skill. Originality/value This study is among the first substantial-scale quantitative analyses to show that mentoring capacity is not simply a function of teaching experience but a distinct, developable skill shaped by mentoring practice. The empirical data generated by the MEL framework scales help provide a bridge between theory and practice, offering new insights to inform mentor selection, preparation, research and policy reform in teacher education.