Target setting in the induction of newly qualified teachers: emerging colleagueship in a context of performance management

This paper draws upon a series of linked projects that focused on the induction of new teachers. Newly qualified teachers' (NQTs) experiences of induction are drawn upon to explore the potential implications of new regulations that are currently being implemented in England. It is argued that policy, as it has developed since the mid-1990s, has increasingly emphasized a discourse of 'performance management'. Attention is also drawn, however, to the way that NQTs and their mentors may be influenced by a discourse that emphasizes staff membership, 'belonging' and NQTs' capacity to contribute to development of their schools. It is suggested that the new regulations may be only one strand of induction that is woven into a complex pattern of relationships in which NQTs must locate themselves.