The practice of mentoring has become increasingly influential as a mechanism for creating communities of learning that develop leadership partnerships and capability within, and across global educational settings. This study examines the role of mentoring in building such partnerships and capabilities within two discrete contexts: one, amongst students and two, amongst school leaders. The paper provides a broad overview of the mentoring literature within an educational leadership context.  It then presents two case studies that highlight the ways in which mentoring builds both leadership capability and agency.  A Finnish case study exemplifies the impact of school leaders mentoring senior students to develop leadership capability and capacity.  A New Zealand case study highlights how mentoring school leaders has facilitated the building of agentic learning communities with increased social capital.  The research was guided by a qualitative case study design and used face-to-face interviews, document analysis and focus group discussions as the primary data collection tools.  The process of analysis sought to describe the dynamic pattern of relationships between mentors and mentees.  The findings are significant for educational leaders who are interested in integrating a theoretical and practical framework of mentoring, to enhance both their own, and their students’ leadership capability. There remains abundant scope and reason to continue inquiring into the possibilities of mentoring relationships as a strategy for growing leadership capacity and agency in education contexts.

The New Zealand schooling system has historically performed less well for Maori (indigenous peoples of New Zealand). This trend continues in the twenty first century. Given the increasing Maori student population, there is an urgent need to create a ‘step up’ in system performance that improves outcomes for Maori learners.  Innovative teacher professional learning, grounded in research can contribute to this goal.  The Te Kauhua professional learning model is an action research and development initiative funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Education.  It offers a systematic approach to building innovative communities of professional learning, that position the teacher in the dual roles of both learner and teacher, and producer and user of educational theory.  The conceptual underpinnings of Te Kauhua seek to recast teaching not so much as a discrete entity, but a unity nested within other unities such as the classroom, school, whanau (family) and the wider community.  The professional learning model seeks to develop simultaneously, three key sites of engagement in school communities: teachers, students and families. The purpose of the project is to increase knowledge and understanding about the design of evidence based professional learning that strengthens effective links between schools and Maori communities, maximises pedagogical practices, and contributes to enhanced academic, social and cultural outcomes for Mäori students. Te Kauhua has impacted on teacher practice in a number of ways that are outlined in this paper. Findings from the project suggest that teachers are creating effective links between theory and praxis in their school communities and Maori students are benefiting. There remain a number of leadership challenges to be addressed.