Across England, Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is undergoing a profound demographic shift. At St Mary’s University, where 30% of PGCE Secondary trainees are international, predominantly in shortage subjects such as Physics, Mathematics and Modern Foreign Languages, the sector is witnessing both the opportunities and challenges that accompany an increasingly global teacher pipeline.
As co‑chair of the UCET Special Interest Group for the Support of International Teachers in Education, I have worked closely with colleagues across 32 ITE providers to understand how we can better support migrant pre‑service teachers to thrive. Listening to colleagues across the country, it has become evident that culturally responsive mentoring is no longer optional but a central aspect to inclusion, belonging and professional formation in teacher training.
Understanding the context: complexity, transition and belonging
International trainees arrive with rich educational, professional and cultural experiences from their home countries, yet they also face significant adaptation demands. The sense of cognitive, cultural and emotional overload is echoed across our exit surveys, interviews and student voice data at St Mary’s. Echoing the Department for Education report on the integration of international teachers (Higton et al, 2025), international trainees find it much more challenging in school placement than on campus in terms of integration. Navigating new pedagogical expectations, unfamiliar behaviour systems, visa pressures, financial constraints and the nuances of “professional behaviours” in English schools can create a fragile sense of belonging.
Our Special Interest Group have highlighted the strong correlation between trainees’ ability to adapt culturally and their emerging sense of professional identity. When trainees feel understood, valued and supported, they are more able to engage in reflective practice, seek help early and develop confidence in the classroom. When they do not, feelings of isolation and self doubt can quickly escalate.
A whole‑institution approach to inclusion
At St Mary’s, we have developed a six‑week International Teacher Support Team model that brings together Admissions, Accommodation, Visa Support, Careers, Course Leads, Partnership Leads and the Research Centre for Education (Bhorkar, Campbell and Claro, 2026). This collaborative structure ensures that international trainees are not navigating the system alone. Pre‑course modules, pre‑arrival webinars, alumni buddy systems and an August Welcome Day with interactive safeguarding and culturally responsive workshops help trainees build early connections and reduce uncertainty before the programme begins.
However, the most significant impact comes from the school‑based experience. This is where culturally responsive mentoring becomes essential.
Mentoring as the heart of inclusion
Mentors are the primary interpreters of culture, expectations and professional norms as they work with their trainees every day whilst on school placement. They shape how trainees understand the curriculum, behaviour systems, workload and the unwritten rules of school life. Yet many mentors have had limited training in working with culturally diverse trainees. To address this, we redesigned our mentor and PCM training for 2026-27 around three core modules:
- delivering the St Mary’s Curriculum (mentoring principles, progression and expectations)
- creating an inclusive culture through mentoring: building inclusive cultures around Professional Behaviours
- developing educators for the modern classroom: fostering professional behaviour and inclusive teaching in practice from planning to progress
This training is delivered both in person and online, supported by supervision visits for mentors by link tutors, M&QA processes and structured prompts for mentor reflection. This approach allows for mentors to develop a psychologically safe environment for their cross-culture mentor/mentee dynamic (Passmore, 2023)
Developing culturally responsive mentors
Our training draws on a wide body of literature to help mentors understand the cultural, psychological and interpersonal dimensions of mentoring:
- Unconscious and implicit bias (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995)
- Intersectionality (Place, 2022)
- Neurodiversity and disability (UNICEF, 2025)
- Psychological safety (Clutterbuck, 2022; Passmore, 2023)
- Intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 1986)
- Cultural intelligence (Meyer, 2014)
- Emotional intelligence and personality traits (Erikson, 2019)
These frameworks help mentors move from an ethnocentric stance, where their own cultural norms are the default, to an ethnorelative stance, where difference is understood as an asset rather than a deficit (Bennett, 1986).
This shift is crucial for international trainees, who often report that misunderstandings around communication styles, assertiveness, hierarchy or help‑seeking behaviours can lead to inaccurate judgements about their professionalism.
Impact: what we are seeing
The outcomes of this work have been significant:
- increased dialogue between trainees and mentors and university tutors before cultural tensions become problematic enough to interfere with the progress of the trainee
- greater trainee confidence in articulating their needs
- more meaningful Support Plans, which close more quickly
- reduced feelings of isolation, as trainees understand the rationale behind expectations
- improved communication, with fewer assumptions on both sides.
Dialogue with school-based mentors suggests that mentors feel better equipped to support trainees whose cultural backgrounds differ from their own, and trainees report feeling more understood, valued and professionally empowered.
Next steps for the sector
Despite the improvement there is still scope to strengthen this work further. We are:
- working with UCET, the Institute of Physics, the Association for Language Learning, the Association for Science Education, The British Council, The British Academy and the APPG for Languages to address visa barriers affecting international teachers
- the time and availability of mentors is inconsistent across settings and workload related
- the sector must also recognise the wider policy implications. As Tereshchenko et al. (2025) and Panford (2025) highlight, minority ethnic trainees often experience microaggressions and structural inequities within ITE. Culturally responsive mentoring is one aspect of pedagogical enhancement which is part of a wider and more complex effort linked with racial literacy. Making international and migrant teachers feel that they belong is a matter of equity, retention and workforce sustainability.
Building inclusive, culturally responsive mentoring for a global ITE community
International trainees enrich our schools with linguistic diversity, global perspectives and deep cultural knowledge. But to thrive, they need mentors who understand the complexities of cultural adaptation and who can create psychologically safe, inclusive spaces for professional growth. Culturally responsive mentoring is not an add‑on; it is a core competency for 21st‑century teacher educators.
As the demographic landscape of ITE continues to shift, our responsibility is clear: to build mentoring systems that recognise, value and empower every trainee - wherever they come from, and wherever they are going.
Juliette Claro is senior lecturer at St Mary’s University, London. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and co-chair of the UCET Special Interest Group in support to International Trainee Teachers. You can find out more about her work with culturally responsive mentoring and teaching here.
References:
Bennett, J.M. (1986) Towards ethnorelativism. A developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In M.R. Paige (ed.) Cross-cultural orientation: New Conceptualizations and applications, New York: University Press of America, pp. 27–69.
Bhorkar, S., Campbell, R. and Claro, J. (2026) A reflective narrative on supporting international trainee teachers to thrive when teaching in English schools. Impact, Issue 26 (Equity in teacher education and development) p3 –5. Chartered College of Teaching. Available at: https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/a-reflective-narrative-on-supporting-international-trainee-teachers-to-thrive-when-teaching-in-english-schools/
Clutterbuck, D. (2022) Coaching and mentoring: Theory and practice. 4th edn. London: Routledge
Greenwald, A.G. and Banaji, M.R. (1995) ‘Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self‑esteem, and stereotypes’, Psychological Review, 102(1), pp. 4–27.
Higton, J., White, Y., Nicoletti, R., Cojocaru, M., Harvey-Rich, S. & Duncan, K. (2025) International teacher recruitment: research report. Research and analysis. Department for Education, June. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683f3b09619fa00d0be98e26/International_teacher_recruitment_research_report.pdf
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Panford, L. (2025) The recruitment and retention of languages teachers of colour from the Global South in England. Languages, Society & Policy. Available at: https://www.lspjournal.com/post/the-recruitment-and-retention-of-languages-teachers-of-colour-from-the-global-south-in-england
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Price, C. (2025) ‘Bringing intersectionality to the forefront: a call for transformation in UK inclusive education’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10 September. doi: 10.1080/13603116.2025.255540.
St Mary’s University (n.d.) Mentor Training Zone. Available at: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/partnerships/mentor-zone/mentor-training-zone.aspx (Accessed: 30 March 2026).
St Mary’s University (n.d.) International trainees. Available at: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/partnerships/itt-school-experience-handbook/during-school-experience/supporting-trainees-during-school-experience/international-trainees.aspx
Tereshchenko, A., Kaur, B., Cara, O., Wiggins, A., & Pillinger, C. (2025). Racial microaggressions on the initial teacher education programmes: implications for minority ethnic teacher retention. Teachers and Teaching, 31(7), 1065–1083. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2024.2397583
UNICEF (2025) Manager’s guide: Neurodivergent talent. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Available at: https://www.unicef.org/careers/media/3116/file/UNICEF%20Manager's%20Guide%20-%20Neurodivergent%20Talent%20-%20June%202025.pdf