Mentoring to build early childhood teacher capacity across career stages: The early childhood elevate mentoring program

The shortage of qualified Early Childhood Teachers is one of the most complex challenges facing the Australian early learning sector. The Early Childhood Elevate Mentoring Program (ECEM) was conceptualised, developed and implemented with ECTs to enable them to support Diploma trained educators as they studied an accelerated Bachelor of Early Years degree. Mentoring is an effective strategy to build shared understandings and support career progression. The ability to demonstrate a strong professional identity is important for educators, and for their leadership of the profession. This paper reports key components for a mentoring program to empower ECTs as leaders - short asynchronous video lectures, written content, professional readings, reflective questions, outside module tasks, video interviews and the opportunity to participate in a community of practice – and the experiences of the mentors as they engaged with each. Findings showed the program offered a powerful way to build capacity