Transcript Mentoring Practices and Relationships in Early Childhood

Mentoring
in Early Childhood Settings
Pauline Harris
Faculty of Education
University of Wollongong
[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
‘A sharing experience and
a sharing of experience’
‘Not any one thing’
‘A creative friendship’
‘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’
?
‘A partnership of
mutual benefit’
‘A learning
relationship’
‘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)
‘What lies behind us and
what lies before us are tiny
matters compared to what
lies within us.’
(Oliver Wendell-Holmes)
‘Typically, it is a one-toone 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 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
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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
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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 Mentoring
Mentoring 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…
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Fill the empty vessel
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Fix up the patient
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Nurture the seed
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
Some effective strategies…
• 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
Some effective strategies…
• 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
Some effective strategies…
• 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
Maturity
Development
Initiation
(Rolfe-Flett, 2002)
Disengagement
Redefinition
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
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Purpose
How it will work
Who will be involved
Other details
• Training support and workshops
Components of a
Mentoring Program
• 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
Components of a
Mentoring Program
• 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 structure
Initial enthusiasm wanes
Lack of direction
Meetings are without purpose,
continuity or outcome
Few mentoring partnerships continue
Disillusionment occurs
Mentoring dismissed as fad
Contrived and stilted
Inhibits mentoring relationship
Paperwork & reporting takes up time
Management may seem like
manipulation
Mentoring is equated with
performance appraisal
(Rolfe-Flett, 2002)
Structure in a
Mentoring Program
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)
Structure in a
Mentoring Program
Additional strategies…
• Conduct a SWOT analysis with participants
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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
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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
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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 6
Identify issues in an early childhood setting that a mentoring program could address.
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Analyse needs:
• What is the core issue that you seek to improve?
• What are the related issues contributing to the core issue?
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Develop objectives:
• What role could mentors take in addressing the core and related issues?
• What would be the objectives of the mentoring program?
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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?
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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