Mentoring in Early Childhood Settings

Mentoring in Early Childhood Settings

Pauline Harris Faculty of Education

University of [email protected]

Workshop Overview

• What is mentoring?• Why implement mentoring in

early childhood settings?• How is mentoring undertaken?• What makes up a mentoring

program?• What are the key steps in

planning a mentoring program?

What is mentoring?

‘To value the growth and development of children, we must value our own growth and development

as early childhood practitioners.’Soave & McCormick Ferguson, 2005

Workshop Activity 1

• What does mentoring mean to you?

Reflect, record and share in your group

Definitions of Mentoring

‘Not any one thing’

‘A partnership of mutual benefit’

‘A learning relationship’

‘A creative friendship’

‘A sharing experience and a sharing of experience’

‘A long-term engagement whereby you are working with the same people and changing or enhancing that level of engagement over time. It is not a linear process’

?‘When two people find space in their working lives to reflect on their work and practice’

Definitions of Mentoring

‘An alliance of two people that creates a space for dialogue that results in definition, action and learning for both.’ (Rolfe-Flett, 2001)

‘Typically, it is a one-to-one relationship between a more experienced and a less experienced employee. It is based upon encouragement, constructive comments, openness, mutual trust, respect and a willingness to share.’ (Spencer, 1999)

‘What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.’ (Oliver Wendell-Holmes)

What mentoring is and is not

• Mentoring is not supervision• Mentoring is not only role-modelling• Mentoring involves direct assistance of

career planning and professional development through teaching, counselling, role-modelling, providing support, protecting, promoting and/or sponsoring.

Role of the Mentor

• To commit themselves to the mentoring program and their mentee

• Encourage exploration of ideas• Encourage risk-taking• Listen when mentee has a problem• Provide appropriate and timely advice• Provide access to appropriate skills training• Assist mentee to identify & solve problems• Help mentee to shift and broaden their perspectives• Confront negative intentions or behaviours

Role of the Mentee

• Commit themselves to the mentoring program and their mentor

• Take on new challenges and responsibilities• Seek and be receptive of feedback• Accept responsibility for their own growth

and development• Be willing to take risks

Why implement mentoring in early childhood settings?

‘Create a collaborative learning culture where teamwork and mentoring become

normal social practices [through] informed, reflective practice [that] infuses

interactions and deliberations [and] by taking advantage of, rather than resisting,

the natural power of complexity.’Davis & Pratt, 2005, Early Childhood Educators

Benefits to Mentors• Develop a close working relationship with mentee• Personal growth and professional development • Different perspectives on issues• Enhanced communication and leadership skills• Deepened insights into workplace complexities• Receive public recognition• A way of making a contribution• Revitalised interest in their work• Opportunity to exert influence in an organisation

Benefits to Mentees• Personal growth and self-development plans• Support in developing and implementing targeted

development activities• Enhance likelihood for success• Development of specific skills and knowledge• Deepened understanding of organisation• Expanded vision• Extended networks and support systems• Enhanced communication and interpersonal skills• Improved promotion opportunities• Enhanced status and sense of standing

Benefits to Organisation

• Increasing ability to attract and retain talent• Discovery of latent talent• Improved employee commitment• Enhanced motivation for managers• Retaining corporate knowledge• Increased organisational capacity for professional

development • Enhanced organisational culture and image• People feeling valued through recognition of

individual contributions

Workshop Activity 2

• Reflect on the benefits of mentoring that have been presented. Which of these in particular apply to your setting?

Share and discuss with your group.

How is mentoring undertaken?

“Mentoring is so much more challenging than I expected it to be. I thought I would meet

my mentee, we'd become instant friends and then we'd chat about early childhood

education together. It takes lots of experience and support to become a good

mentor.”An early childhood educator in Klinger, 2003

Types of Mentoring

One-to-one mentoring

• Close hierarchical relationship• Expensive on time• Limits matchings between mentor and mentee that can be

made• Provides guaranteed commitment of mentor to mentee

Types of MentoringMentoring hubs

• Mentor working with a number of mentees at once• May work with each mentee individually and with all

mentees as a group• Allows and encourages mentees to coach each other and

develop significant peer relationships• Increases number of matchings that can be made• Requires a large time commitment of mentor• Difficult to guarantee equal commitment to each mentee• Mentee needs to be more self-reliant and

take more responsibility for their own development

Types of Mentoring

On-site mentors

• Readily available for ad hoc meetings, informal shadowing and counselling

• Might be difficult to identify an appropriate mentor who is more senior than the mentee but not the mentee’s immediate supervisor

• The mentor usually is more senior but can also be a more experienced peer

Types of Mentoring

Off-site mentors

• Mentee has opportunity to see variety of ways of working management styles

• Mentor is separate from mentee’s direct line manager• Mentoring must be organised and formal, removing

opportunities for informal ad hoc coaching and counselling

• One-site workplaces can work in co-operation with other work sites

Workshop Activity 3

• What type of mentoring do you think would best suit your early childhood workplace and team needs? Why?

Reflect, share and discuss with your group

Mentoring Functions

Some perceptions of mentoring…

• Fill the empty vessel

• Nurture the seed• Fix up the patient

• Help climb the ladder

• Facilitate discovery of another’s career path

Mentoring Functions

Some effective strategies…

• Shadowing• Mentee follows mentor around in daily work, observing

and discussing observations to identify ways to improve own performance

• Trialling• Mentee chooses an idea or process and sets up a

situation in which it can be piloted and reflected upon with mentor

Mentoring Functions


• Job rotation• Mentee gains experience in various tasks and divisions

of a workplace or organisation

• Project work• Mentee becomes part of a project team set up or related

to learning goals, to learn specific skills related to project and team work

Mentoring Functions


• Coaching• Mentee seeks out or is matched with people with

specific technical skills

• Counselling• Mentor helps mentee to identify and resolve their own

problems

Mentoring Functions


• Visits off-site• Mentee looks at examples of good practice in other

workplaces, and discusses this experience with mentor to clarify the learning and suggest improvements in their own practices

• Research• Mentor provides ideas on professional reading and other

professional development through manuals, videos/DVDs, workshops, conferences and so on

Workshop Activity 4• To what extent do you have

opportunity to be involved in these mentoring functions in your early childhood setting, as mentor and/or mentee?

• Which of these would you like to be involved in, why, and how might you initiate such involvement?

Share and discuss with your group.

Mentoring Relationships• Trust

• Honesty• Good will

• Good questions• Confidentiality

• Respect• Reciprocity

• Encouragement• Active listening

• Chemistry • Time

Phases in Developing a Mentoring Relationship

Initiation

DisengagementDevelopment

Maturity

Redefinition

(Rolfe-Flett, 2002)

What makes up a mentoring program?

‘One of the things that I've been privileged to have in my own career is some really great … mentors who have

encouraged me in my work - who supported me as I took risks and stretched the boundaries to help achieve my

goals, and I'd like to do the same for others.’Anne Glover, Early Childhood Educator

Components of a Mentoring Program

• Information kits about the program• Purpose• How it will work• Who will be involved• Other details

• Training support and workshops


• Mentoring meetings between mentor and mentee/s

• Debriefing and review meetings of all mentors and mentees• Discuss achievements, challenges, questions and

concerns

• Networking• Opportunities to form supportive alliances and obtain

information


• Informal/social activities• Foster group interaction

• Workbooks and journals• Provide structure and resources for the program

• Newsletters• Provide information and updates and maintain interest

• Evaluation• Monitor progress and evaluate program outcomes and

participant feedback• Ongoing and responsive, e.g., meetings, questionnaires

Structure in a Mentoring Program

Too little structure Too much structureInitial enthusiasm wanesLack of directionMeetings are without purpose, continuity or outcomeFew mentoring partnerships continueDisillusionment occursMentoring dismissed as fad

(Rolfe-Flett, 2002)

Contrived and stiltedInhibits mentoring relationship

Paperwork & reporting takes up timeManagement may seem like

manipulationMentoring is equated with

performance appraisal


Minimum of structure would include…

• Overall mentoring objectives

• General guidelines that include mentoring policy but leave scope for mentors and mentees to make their own arrangements

• Occasional phone contact by program co-ordinator to monitor program

• A short questionnaire at end of program to evaluate results

(Rolfe-Flett, 2002)


Additional strategies…

• Conduct a SWOT analysis with participants• Strengths• Weaknesses• Opportunities• Threats

• Provide checklists, pro formae and guides and allow participants option of using them or not

• Facilitate group discussions during training sessions

Workshop Activity 5

• What kind of structure would you see as feasible and desirable in your early childhood setting?

• What elements would you want to include and why?

Share, record and discuss with your group

What are the key steps in planning a mentoring

program?

‘Parents, children and staff are the organization’s priority… supporting its practitioners and valuing their contributions, the organization believes that

the creation of a mentoring culture will increase quality and produce an excellent standard of care for children and their families. … early childhood staff is what have made, and will continue to make, the organization successful. The organization believes that their early

childhood staff is the means to achieving their organization’s ends. It holds the philosophy of~ "what goes around comes around in the circle of care

".

Partners in Practice:Bringing a Mentoring Culture to Life Within A Child’s World Family Child Care Services in Niagara

Research

• Analyse individual and organisational needs • eg., a SWOT analysis

• Identify desired outcomes• Clarify issues to be addressed

• Eg., staff turnover, knowledge dissemination and uptake, communication processes, career management issues

• Determine mentoring training needs• Formulate evaluation criteria

Program Design

• Plan what needs to be done• Identify who will be involved• Establish what resources will be required• Create a time line• Include a communication strategy that informs all

staff of the program• Develop procedures and processes for monitoring

and evaluating the program

Training

• Ensure mentors and mentees have the necessary skills for mentoring and being mentored

• Develop shared understanding of

• Their own and each other’s roles and responsibilities as mentor and mentee

• Objectives and processes of the program

• Access to resources and assistance

• How the program is to be evaluated

Pilot

• Plan and implement a small scale trial program

• Monitor and evaluate the trial• Debrief participants on the evaluation and

invite discussion and ways forward• Identify refinements of the pilot program

for full-scale implementation

Implement the Program

• Plan the mentoring program on a full scale• Launch the program• Monitor as an ongoing process• Evaluate program at its end• Manage the program’s conclusion and exit• Celebrate the program’s successes and

participants’ achievements and contributions, and reflect on the challenges and ways ahead.

Workshop Activity 6

• Identify a core issue in an early childhood setting that a mentoring program could address.

• Working through the planning steps that have been outlined, identify and discuss ways you could• Research• Design• Train• Pilot• Launch and fully implement and evaluate a mentoring program to address a core issue that

you have identified.

Workshop Activity 6Identify issues in an early childhood setting that a mentoring program could address.

• Analyse needs:• What is the core issue that you seek to improve?• What are the related issues contributing to the core issue?

• Develop objectives:• What role could mentors take in addressing the core and related issues?• What would be the objectives of the mentoring program?

• Identify skills and training requirements:• What knowledge, skills and attitudes would mentors need to be effective in this role?• What training will participants need? How will it be provided?

• Develop a plan and timeline• How will communication & shared understanding of the program be established?• What resources will be needed and used? How will they be obtained?• How will training be provided?• How will the program be co-ordinated, piloted , launched and evaluated?

In Closing

Mentoring cannot realize its true potential if it is not an integral part of the early childhood care system. It must be seen as a thread that

permeates the system and enriches all aspects of early childhood. To truly have an impact on the care provided to children in early childhood practice, mentoring must be recognized for its value by all stakeholders

in the system including practitioners, child care organizations, early childhood care and education programs and funding bodies.

Soave & McCormick, 2005

Mentoring in Early Childhood Settings

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