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 induc tion of new teachers. Newly qualified teachers' (NQTs) experiences of induc tion are drawn upon to explore the potential implications of new regulation s that are currently being implemented in England. It is argued that policy , as it has developed since the mid-1990s, has increasingly emphasized a di scourse of 'performance management'. Attention is also drawn, however, to t he way that NQTs and their mentors may be influenced by a discourse that em phasizes 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 rel ationships in which NQTs must locate themselves.