Sustaining the best and the brightest: empowering new early childhood teachers through mentoring

Purpose Retention of early childhood teachers in Australia is a critical issue, particularly for new teachers. The demanding nature of new teachers’ everyday work and high rates of stress and burnout have resulted in teachers leaving the sector. By designing a formal mentoring project, our aim was to support teachers to stay and flourish as respected professionals. This paper presents findings from the perspective of the mentees – new teachers in their first five years of employment in the sector. Design/methodology/approach We designed and offered a two-phase multi-layered mentoring project to 145 new teachers (mentees) matched with 51 experienced teachers (mentors). It began with a mentor training course implemented by three experienced early childhood education academics and utilised a community of practice approach (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Data collected throughout the project included a pre- and post-survey and a needs satisfaction and frustration scale. Findings Analysis of survey data shows that mentee new teachers gained a better understanding of their role and built connections with peers and leaders. Survey data also demonstrates that effective mentoring can successfully contribute to addressing workforce challenges faced by early childhood teachers. Originality/value The project makes an original contribution through the design, implementation and evaluation of an innovative online mentoring project for teachers employed across the state of New South Wales, Australia.