This paper contributes to theoretical renewal in mentoring research by using the conceptual framework of dilemmatic space to analyze and discuss how Swedish mentors’ roles, positions and relations change as a result of the Swedish government’s recent implementation of a teacher registration reform and a probation year for newly qualified teachers. The paper builds on an existing content analysis of the policy document concerning the teacher registration reform. The results of this study’s relational analysis show that mentoring emerges as tensions between central and local governments as policies construct boundaries that lead to political acts that become part of everyday practices through roles, negotiations and positioning, which ultimately have an effect on mentors and mentorship.