In an era marked by intensifying global disparities in educational opportunity and outcomes, the imperative to foreground equity as a guiding principle within teacher education has never been more pressing. This article undertakes a theoretically robust and empirically grounded exploration of mentoring as a strategic lever for advancing educational equity, with a particular focus on its transformative impact within pre-service teacher education programs. The paper reconceptualizes mentoring not merely as a support mechanism but as a catalytic praxis of equity-building, capable of disrupting entrenched hierarchies and fostering inclusive educational cultures.

The research addresses a gap in the literature by interrogating the nuanced ways in which structured mentoring relationships—especially those embedded in initial teacher preparation—can cultivate dispositions, competencies, and reflective capacities aligned with equity-oriented pedagogies. Anchored in a mixed-methods research design, the study triangulates longitudinal survey data, mentor-mentee dyad analyses, and narrative inquiry methodologies across multiple cohorts of pre-service teachers enrolled in diverse institutional contexts. The findings illuminate how mentoring, when intentionally designed with an equity lens, functions both as a relational scaffold and as a site of critical consciousness, enhancing novice teachers’ ability to redress complex socio-educational inequalities.

Quantitative data reveal statistically significant correlations between mentoring experiences and increased levels of pedagogical self-efficacy, culturally responsive teaching strategies, and inclusive classroom management practices. Qualitative data further demonstrate the emergence of professional identities among mentees, shaped by mentors’ modeling of advocacy, empathy, and institutional critique. Importantly, the study also exposes the structural limitations and affordances of mentoring programs, underscoring the pivotal role of institutional vision, mentor training, and policy alignment in sustaining equitable mentoring ecologies.

By framing mentoring as an epistemological, ethical, and political act, the article advances a change in thinking about how teacher education conceptualizes professional training. It argues for a reconfiguration of mentoring as an equity praxis—one that transcends technical guidance and instead positions mentorship as a transformative and justice-driven endeavor. The implications are far-reaching: from rethinking mentor selection and preparation to embedding mentoring within broader efforts to dismantle deficit discourses and rehumanize teacher training.

This study contributes an evidence-based intervention to contemporary discourses on educational equity, positioning mentoring not as a peripheral feature of teacher preparation but as a central architecture of reform, with the capacity to shape inclusive and resilient future classrooms across global education systems.

Keywords: Equity-oriented mentoring, pre-service teacher education, culturally responsive pedagogy, professional identity.