375 EDU. INQ. Education Inquiry Vol. 4, No. 2, June 2013, pp. 375–394 *Center for Teaching & Learning (CLU), University of Borås, Sweden. E-mail: lill.langelotz@hb.se ©Authors. ISSN 2000-4508, pp. 375–394 Teachers’ peer group mentoring – Nine steps to heaven? Lill Langelotz* Abstract Various kinds of mentoring processes to enhance teachers’ collective learning and professional development have become popular. Collective learning and collective practice development within professions may be approached as an integral part of ‘professional learning communities’. Research emphasises that learning communities cannot be commanded into existence and that they require voluntary participation. It is implicit that the participating teachers are open-minded and willing to share their teaching experiences. Yet in this article the situation is diferent. The article draws on a three-year-long case study in a Swedish secondary school involving one teacher team ‘forced’ to participate in peer group mentoring. The project aimed to develop teaching team facilitation using a nine-step model of peer group mentoring (PGM). Framed by Michel Foucault’s notion of power, the analysis shows that the disciplining practice of PGM generated new and complex processes. These processes can be described as disciplining, democratising and developmental for both the individual and the teacher team. Keywords: teaching team facilitation, professional learning communities, peer group mentoring, power relations Introduction The responsibility of teachers to develop both their own teaching expertise and the school practice has been expected for a long time in both Swedish and international contexts. In the Swedish legislation governing education (e.g. the curricula Lpo 94; Lgr 11) teachers are explicitly required to engage in school development based on the latest research indings and their own practical experience (Rönnerman, 2005). Further, teachers are supposed to collaborate and develop “communities of practice” (Lave & Wenger, 1991). For this reason, Swedish teachers have been organised in various forms of teacher teams since the 1980s, with their organisation being formalised by a 1994 Bill (curricula Lpo 94; Lgr 80) (e.g. Knutas, 2008; Ohlsson, 2004a). To support school development as well as teachers’ professional development, various forms of professional group mentoring have been an increasing phenomenon in Swedish schools for about 20 years (Kroksmark & Åberg, 2007; Åberg, 2009). During a group mentoring process teachers are supposed to develop their professional expertise