Becoming university qualified early childhood teachers: Studying with structured mentoring

Abstract

University students studying to attain an early childhood teaching degree frequently face a triad of competing demands – study, work and personal – that affect their capacity to maintain studies to successfully complete their qualification. In the Australian government’s ten-year early childhood workforce strategy, mentoring was identified as a priority area. Mentoring during university studies boosts professional confidence in becoming a qualified teacher. In this study, framed through a Community of Practice, 56 mentees, 13 mentors, three academic mentors and four First Nations’ cultural advisors, engaged in a 26-week mentoring program. Findings indicate that mentoring from the beginning of university studies can ameliorate the triad of demands. However, a realistic consideration of the time available in relation to these factors is essential. This study offers evidence for funding mentoring programs to enable engagement in university studies and potentially boost the early childhood workforce, with implications for employers, universities and government.

Introduction

Enabling early childhood teacher (ECT) education students to maintain enrolment and successfully complete their ECT degree qualification is critical. This is particularly important given the competing demands on today’s university students and the critical shortage of university qualified ECTs (Mckinlay et al., 2024). Student retention in higher education in Australia is impacted by distance enrolment, studying part-time and admission to university based on a previous Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, 2020). These retention factors are frequently attributed to ECT degree students. Many educators employed in the early childhood education (ECE) sector with diploma qualifications look to upskill because the professionalisation agenda focuses on increasing qualifications and accountability measures in meeting ratios and quality standards (Jackson, 2020; Thorpe et al., 2020). Furthermore, the Aboriginal Children’s Early Childhood Education Strategy 2021–2025 (NSW Department of Education, 2020) calls for an increase in the number of First Nations ECTs to create a culturally safe and competent workforce. Structured and dedicated strategies such as creating cohort networks and opportunities for engagement are needed to ensure success of everyone studying to become an ECT.

There are various pathways to university study, for example, diploma trained educators transitioning from the VET sector and school leavers transitioning to university, with each presenting unique challenges. The few studies that have researched diploma students transitioning to university in Australia (Hadley & Andrews 2013; White, 2014; Whittington et al., 2009) found structural issues such as large classes, assessment requirements, and less regular study patterns impacted upon engagement and satisfaction. Some students found studying as an independent learner challenging, with diploma students noting higher levels of dissatisfaction in their first year (Hadley & Andrews, 2013). A key enabler of students’ success is remediation being offered at critical transition points during their study (Brook et al., 2014). Creating cohort networks is an effective way of “new” students building a sense of community. Networking reduces isolation, offers opportunities for learning, innovation, and the exchange of ideas and resources within and across educational settings located close or far apart (Hadley & Andrews, 2015; Hall, 2015; Hearn & Kenna; 2020; McGhie, 2017). First Nations students experience these aforementioned challenges just like their peers, however they are also known to face additional challenges such as isolation, especially if, to attend university, they have relocated from a rural or remote area to the city, and encounter lack of cultural understanding, and language barriers at university (Barney et al., 2016; Hall, 2015; Oliver et al., 2013). However, there are strategies such as establishing a community of learners using social media (Hall, 2015), and accessing university resources and peer networks (Barney et al., 2016) that can ameliorate these barriers. Moreover, Holt and Morgan (2016) advocate that First Nations peoples should be “welcome in the academy not simply as ‘guests’ but as genuine participants” (p. 103).

A shortage of ECTs is an ongoing issue in Australia. Research has shown a strong link between the level of qualification of early childhood (EC) educators, and the quality of provision of ECE (Goodwin et al., 2021; Jackson, 2020). The importance of high quality ECE is well recognised by governments and has resulted in significant reforms in Australia (Thorpe et al., 2023). Reforms have included focussing on upskilling educators to degree qualified teachers to meet staffing shortages (ACECQA, 2021; Jackson, 2020; Thorpe et al., 2020). A recent strategy is targeted government funding of scholarships for educators to upskill to an ECT qualification. Financial scholarships are a suitable starting point, however, educators who are also concurrently in paid employment, have complex and competing study, work and personal demands (ACECQA, 2021; Future Tracks, 2019; Productivity Commission, 2023). Mentoring for these upskilling scholarship holders is crucial (Future Tracks, 2019).

Mentoring

Mentoring is a collegial and mutually respectful relationship of trust between the mentor and the mentee (Turner & Blackburn, 2016). Mentoring has been used in professional learning for in-service teachers and pre-service teachers to overcome day-to-day challenges within EC settings to enhance pedagogical practice (Nolan, 2017). Mentoring during university studies has been shown to boost pre-service teachers’ professional confidence and identity (Hadley & Andrews, 2015).

The quality of the mentors, including contextual support has a direct impact on mentees in the program (Hobson et al., 2020; Klages et al., 2020; Orland-Barak, 2023). Australian and international research in EC contexts has demonstrated the importance of mentor training to prepare experienced teachers to be skilled facilitators with relevant knowledge and skills, and grounded by shared visions of what good practice means and entails (Hobson et al., 2020; Klages et al., 2020; Nolan & Molla, 2018; Tveitness & Hvalby, 2023). Early childhood academics, are well-placed to be involved in the ongoing mentoring of students doing teaching degrees given their knowledge of the EC discipline and mandated governing frameworks including the National Quality Framework, (ACECQA, 2024) and understanding of the challenges students studying and transitioning to university face (Hadley & Andrews, 2015). While mentoring exists in various forms, a Community of Practice (CoP) structure (Lave & Wenger, 1991) offers potential to enable mentors and mentees alike to inform and improve practice.

Communities of practice

Applying a CoP model (Lave & Wenger, 1991), a contextual focus with situational learning can successfully enable university students’ engagement in study (Chapman & Pyvis, 2005). One way to do this is for EC academics to develop mentoring programs for EC education students. Incorporating training of experienced ECTs to be mentors adds value as they can also build leadership capacity in the sector (Ben-Harush & Orland-Barak, 2019; Quinones et al., 2020; Tveitnes & Hvalby, 2023). The Mitchell Institute (Jackson, 2020) highlighted experienced educators need more opportunities to become mentors and leaders to motivate them staying in the sector. The trust and mutuality involved in deepening professional knowledge across theory and practice is central to Lave & Wenger’s (1991) model of mutual engagement, where interprofessional collaboration has the potential to enhance professional knowledge, offer emotional support and boost educator well-being.

Utilising a CoP, we offered a structured mentoring program designed to enable and sustain university students awarded a NSW Department of Education scholarship to maintain engagement in their studies. Our approach was contextualised within research-based evidence as well as relevant ECE workforce policies in NSW and Australia. The project aligned with the NSW Department of Education’s Early Childhood Education Workforce Strategy 2018–2022. Specifically, Area 1: “Promote the role of early childhood educators and teachers as a critical part of a child’s educational journey, and early childhood education as an attractive and meaningful career” (p. 6) and Area 2: “Support the workforce to obtain qualifications and experience to prepare them for the workplace” (p. 8). This initiative also explicitly targeted educators from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds and those in regional and remote areas in NSW. Accordingly, this project was also aligned with the NSW Government's Aboriginal Children’s Early Childhood Education Strategy 2021–2025 through Child Goal 3: “build the diversity of the workforce and create culturally safe learning environments by ensuring growth in the number of Aboriginal educators and teachers” (NSW Government, 2020, p. 7) and Family and Kinship Goal 2: “ensure our ECE sector has culturally safe services and a culturally competent workforce” (NSW Government, 2020, p. 8).

We believe that it was essential that the mentoring program content and pedagogy was nuanced to the students’ (mentees) backgrounds for it to be effective and relevant for them (Grattan Institute, 2018; Jackson, 2021). Therefore, the project aimed to identify:

1. What are the characteristics of the mentees and how do they feel about transitioning to university?

2. What are the attitudes to and experiences of the mentees on mentoring generally and on the mentoring program?

Method

This project involved a 26-week structured mentoring program led by a team of EC academics (n = 3) and one First Nations cultural advisor from a metropolitan university in Sydney. It was delivered in collaboration with a team of skilled mentors who were experienced ECTs (n = 13) and three First Nations cultural advisors. The skilled mentors had completed a mentor training course and implemented the mentoring program in collaboration with the cultural advisers and the early childhood academics (See Andrews et al., 2024; Hadley et al., 2024).

A total of 56 mentees began the mentoring program. All identified as female, 18% as Aboriginal, with 27% of mentees indicating they spoke a language other than English at home and/or work. All mentees resided in New South Wales; with 35% living in metropolitan areas, 23% in country towns and 22% in regional cities. The mentees were enrolled in ECT degrees at 11 NSW universities. Most mentees were in the early stages of their degree: 32% of mentees had completed four or fewer subjects, 30% had completed five to ten subjects and 23% had completed ten to 15 subjects of what is typically a 32-subject course. In terms of employment, 98% of the mentees worked in ECE sector with the majority (80%) working in long day care (LDC). Many participants had experience working in the sector (22% < 5 years and 38% > 10 years). One third of the mentees worked with 3–5-year-olds and 53% worked with a mix of ages from birth to five years. Taken together, the majority (29%) studied part time, worked full time, and had caring responsibilities for children/family members and the next largest group (19%) studied part time, worked part time, and had caring responsibilities for children/family members. Thus, over half the cohort was new to enacting a study-work-life balance.

There was some attrition from the mentoring program. During the first half of the program the mentors noted some mentees were not yet engaged. They were contacted individually regarding how they were progressing with their studies and offered encouragement to re-engage with the program. A small number re-engaged (n < 5) while others explained they had too many other commitments, or the program seemed too demanding. In total, 38 mentees actively participated, accounting for 68% of those initially onboarded. This retention rate is on par with retention rates in other early childhood mentoring (67%) (Uttley & Horm, 2008) and upskilling programs (67%) (The Front Project, 2021).

Design

The mentoring program presented in this paper, mirrors our successful Mentoring and Coaching for New ECTs project (See Andrews et al., 2024; Hadley et al., 2024). Additionally, we acknowledge that there was a possibility for “insider/outsider positioning” (Burgess et al., 2019, p. 299). We actively sort to reduce this by engaging in a consultation process with representatives from key early childhood organisations, universities where mentees were enrolled and input from First Nations cultural advisors. The rationale for this approach and methodology was embedded within our respect for the mentees, particularly those from First Nations backgrounds. Key themes that arose from the consultation process were for all mentees to have opportunities to share knowledge within their allocated small CoP; use a strengths-based approach in mentoring and be clear on expectations for both mentees and mentors; and that mentees and mentors needed to have the ‘right fit’ for the mentoring relationship to be authentic and individualised, including that First Nations advisors worked with the First Nations mentees.

The mentoring program design was anchored theoretically with the CoP methodologies (Lave & Wenger, 1991). A CoP is a group of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through regular interactions and dialogue. Within the CoPs in our mentoring program, all participants shared a commitment to study to become ECTs. The mentoring was aimed at enabling mentees to experience and learn about effective mentoring through a 1:1 relationship with a mentor, peer mentoring engaging within a small ‘pod’ comprising a mentor and 4–5 mentees, and through the larger community created by coming together three times (beginning, middle and end) with all the mentees and mentors participating in the program. All First Nations mentees were distributed to three CoPs with each comprising a First Nations cultural adviser and an experienced EC mentor.

As the participants did not know each other prior to joining the program, establishing a system that facilitated familiarisation with each other and building trust within small groups was essential. This system comprised the academic mentors who formed the Leadership Team (n = 4) working in pairs to guide the mentors, with each pair being responsible for six or seven CoP pods. These shared structural arrangements assisted in clarifying to both mentees and mentors the lines of communication within the mentoring program.

Procedure and measures

After the mentoring program was designed, advertisements to join the program were circulated by the NSW Department of Education and 56 scholar mentees completed the onboarding into a purposely designed online learning platform. Mentees were invited to complete three surveys: (1) Pre-program survey – aimed at capturing their understandings of mentoring (Andrews et al., 2024), aspirations for the program and demographic information; (2) the Transition, Wellbeing, Help-Seeking and Adjustment Instrument Survey – collected mentees’ perspectives on transitional issues, help-seeking strategies known and used by mentees and the mentee’s self-reported wellbeing status. The survey by Sanagavarapu et al. (2018) has four relevant subscales covering (a) personal, socio-emotional and academic challenges, (b) moods and coping relating to students’ wellbeing, (c) socio-demographic and psychological barriers to seeking help, and (d) overall transitional adjustments to university; and (3) Post Course Evaluation Survey (Andrews et al., 2024). The quantitative data was analysed by descriptive statistics.

Throughout the 26-week mentoring program, each week for one hour, the mentees were required to engage in tasks including setting goals, completing readings, listening to vodcasts/podcasts, and watching videos on studying for a university degree and to meet with their mentor to plan, implement and evaluate their goal(s). The Leadership Team maintained regular contact with both mentees and mentors through the various devices accessible through the online teaching platform and online CoP gatherings. Additionally, guidance was also provided for the mentors, though informal drop-in online sessions facilitated by the Leadership Team of academic mentors. These sessions enabled mentors to discuss challenges they were experiencing within their pods, as well as to share successful or effective communication strategies being used in their pods. During the final weeks of the program the mentees did a 5-minute viva voce (live-voice) presentation in which they presented their goal(s) for the program, comments on their progression towards their goal(s), a reflexive explanation of their learning from the program and a future action plan. A small number of mentees did not want to present to a wider group and presented just within their pod and there were some mentees who attended the session to encourage their peers but did not present a Viva Voce themselves. Finally, both mentees and mentors were invited to complete a post-program survey to gain an understanding of the knowledge and benefits gained from the overall program.

Ethics

This project followed the appropriate human research ethics protocols and approval was obtained from the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref. No. 520221148941816). Participants were informed that their involvement was completely voluntary, and withdrawal could occur without consequence. To maintain confidentiality, all participants were deidentified.

Results

To answer research question 1, we present the results from the Transition, Wellbeing, Help-Seeking and Adjustment Instrument Survey (Sanagavarapu et al., 2018), then to answer the second research question, we provide the mentees’ responses detailing their attitudes to and experiences of mentoring generally and about our mentoring program specifically.

Transitioning to university

We asked the mentees (n = 56) to complete the Transition, Wellbeing, Help-Seeking and Adjustment Instrument Survey (Sanagavarapu et al., 2018), 49 participants complied. Question 1 used a 5-point Likert scale that required them to rate their responses between Very nervous (1) and Very excited (5) about how they felt upon starting university. Of the 49 mentees who completed the survey, over three quarters indicated they felt very nervous (43%) or had mixed feelings (33%). Other responses showed that some felt a bit nervous (12%) or excited (12%). Question 2 was a 5-point Likert scale that asked mentees to rate their responses between Very difficult (1) and Very easy (5). The vast majority (84%) of mentees indicated they found it either difficult or somewhat difficult to balance their family commitments with studies. Another 84% found it somewhat/very difficult to find time in their schedules to exercise. Regarding their engagement with university studies, 76% found it somewhat/very difficult to engage in online study and discussion while 63% indicated finding it somewhat/very difficult to complete course assignments.

Wellbeing at university

In question 3, a 5-point Likert scale asked mentees to rate their responses between All the time (1) and Never (5) regarding the frequency of feeling in certain ways since starting university: 53% felt nervous often/always and 53% felt pressure to succeed often/always. Additionally, 47% often/always found it difficult to concentrate and similarly, 47% found themselves feeling tired for no good reason. On a more positive note, however, only 6% of respondents indicated feeling lonely or misunderstood often/always, 6% felt misunderstood and 12% felt unable to fit in. Question 4 required a yes/no response when asked whether they have spoken to anyone about their feelings about starting university and Question 5 asked them to specify with whom they had spoken with a list of options to select from, noting they could indicate as many as applied to them. Importantly 55% had spoken to someone. Of those who had, they were most likely to have spoken to a close friend (48%), a General Practitioner (44%), or a health professional outside the university (e.g., psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker) (37%).

Support at university

In another 5-point Likert scale ranging between Strongly disagree (1) and Strongly agree (5) in Question 6, mentees were invited to indicate whether they were satisfied with the support provided through the Student Support Services at their respective universities. We found that 35% of mentees were satisfied, however the most common response was neither agree nor disagree (45%). This may suggest that respondents were not familiar or have not been in contact with student support services at their university. Question 7 asked mentees about accessing Student Support Services at their universities. Overall, most statements did not seem to resonate with respondents, with 8 of the 11 statements being selected by fewer than 20%. Notably, no participants resonated with the statement I would be concerned about language barriers (e.g., my English is not good). There were concerning findings where 47% agreed with the statement I would be concerned I may not be able to explain my problem, 37% with I would only prefer online support, and 27% with I would be afraid to seek support. Interestingly, those who expressed the desire for online support were more likely (62%) than the cohort to be concerned with being able to explain their problem, suggesting that an online format may be effective at assuaging their fears. Question 8 was an open-ended question asking mentees to express any other concerns they had in relation to accessing student support services. Most left this box blank or typed some variation of ‘no’ however the few who did respond had some interesting insights. Most revealing is that three mentees had never heard of Student Support Services while another two indicated that they did not think this line of questioning was relevant to them as they were online students and therefore could not benefit from services provided. This again suggests that there are misunderstandings about the student support offered by universities.

Adjustment

Question 9, another 5-point Likert scale that ranged between Not adjusting at all (1) and Adjusting very well (5), asked how well do you think you are adjusting to university? Most mentees (41%) indicated that they were ‘adjusting somewhat’ and another 29% selected ‘on the way to adjusting’. Only 4% selected ‘adjusting very well’ while 27% chose adjusting well. Finally Question 10 was another open-ended question that asked mentees to provide any additional comments regarding their experiences of starting at university and support provided for adjustments and wellbeing at university. Those who provided detailed responses were overwhelmingly dissatisfied with their experience. While some mentioned that seeking and receiving support had become easier as their degree progressed, others noted that support was very dependent on individual course convenors/tutors. Several mentees thought Question 10 was not relevant to them as they study online, again suggesting a misunderstanding of the kinds of support universities can provide. One remarked that there appear to be a plethora of student support services for academic support but was not aware of any for student wellbeing. The main takeaway from this question is that many of the mentees were facing some challenges at university and they were struggling to find support. The most common concerns were finding study/work/personal life balance and managing time effectively. Others mentioned care obligations, poor mental health, issues with navigating online systems, and finding assessment (grammar and referencing) expectations challenging. One mentee found that cultural safety was an issue at their university. Another mentioned the loss of face-to-face interactions due to COVID-19 had negatively impacted their sense of wellbeing.

Experience of mentoring

To answer research question 2, at the commencement of the program we used a survey to ascertain mentees’ prior experience of mentoring. Only 18% of mentees currently had a mentor, whereas 36% had worked with a mentor in the past, with the majority (80%) of the mentors being a work colleague. Next, when asked to select from a list of characteristics that they considered to be representative of an effective mentoring relationship, overwhelmingly the top three characteristics selected by mentees were that the mentor and mentee should: develop trust with each other (93%), engage in active listening (91%) and experience mutual learning (73%).

Using a 5-point Likert scale, mentees were then asked to what extent they (1) Strongly agreed to (2) Strongly disagreed with a series of statements about mentoring. Taking the categories of agree and strongly agree together, 93% overall agreed that establishing a mentoring system amongst employees of the same organisation is an effective leadership strategy; 82% overall agreed that attitudes about mentoring vary between cultures; 73% overall agreed agree that mentoring relationships are active only as long as the mentee wants it; and 59% overall agreed that mentoring on a 1:1 basis is more effective than with a whole group. Finally, the mentees were also asked to rank from 1 to 8 the aspects about a mentoring relationship that were most to least important: 35% of mentees ranked building trust with my mentor as the most important while another 35% put establishing mutual respect with my mentor as the most important. As the least important factor, 40% put learning personal time management skills and 23% put setting long-term goals for my career development. The final question asked mentees to describe what they expected to gain from this mentoring program. Analysing these open responses, some themes emerged: 40% of responses mentioned a desire for support, 25% mentioned improving skills, 22% mentioned gaining knowledge, 18% mentioned guidance, 16% noted a desire for better understanding, 16% saw the mentor’s role as supporting their professional development and 15% noted that they wanted assistance in completing their degrees.

Goal setting and outcomes

Not all mentees submitted their learning contracts, some chose to participate using verbal records or stored their information on their own devices or used handwritten notes. We encouraged our mentors to use culturally sensitive opportunities to contribute to conversations (Hall, 2015) rather than enforcing submission of learning contracts. Some First Nations mentees preferred to use yarning (talking) when formulating and presenting their goals. There were 32 learning contracts established between the mentees and their mentors and uploaded through the online learning management system. The goals the mentees produced were a rich data source along with their reflective writing and the feedback they received from their mentors. Key thematic nodes were identified from a review of the submitted learning contracts including SMART Goals, reflective writing, and mentor feedback. This data was used to structure the review and formed the basis of key considerations and recommendations presented to the government.

The main themes included study and work skills, university work, professional identity development and mentor feedback. Thirty-three mentees registered to present their goals and self-evaluations to a wider audience at Viva Voce (live voice) online sessions. All mentees who presented reported achieving their goals and having a sense of pride in completing our mentoring program. One mentee’s reflection reinforced the message that mentoring programs add value and support mentees to be successful in balancing their study/work/personal commitments:

This program gave me the motivation to continue to remind myself that it is okay to have time for me and go for a walk to clear my head and take a break. In the last month I have joined a cycle class gym and I have been attending minimum 3 classes a week before and after work and on the weekend. I believe that this program and my goal is the motivation that I needed to join up and schedule in attending the classes into my week.

Evaluation of program

At the conclusion of the 26-week mentoring program, mentors and mentees were invited to complete an online survey about their experience. All mentees indicated they had multiple time commitments with study and work, and 44% of mentees had study, work, and caring responsibilities. Overall mentee and mentor responses to the program were overwhelmingly positive, with 78% of mentees and 86% of mentors rating the overall quality of their experience in the program as excellent. All (100%) mentors and mentees selected mutual learning and active listening as representative of an effective mentoring relationship and 89% of mentees and 86% of mentors selected trust between mentors and mentees. Furthermore, 89% of mentees and 100% of mentors rated the resource materials in the program as very good or excellent. All respondents selected very good or excellent when describing guidance from mentors and academic mentors. Mentee and mentor perspectives on time allocation were varied, with 89% of mentees selecting very appropriate compared to 57% of mentors. Communication also varied between the groups, with mentors communicating in varied ways by using the online learning system, Zoom, email and/or phone. However, the most effective method of communication nominated by mentees and mentors was Zoom and WhatsApp, followed by phone and email in that order.

When asked, What will you take away from the program? 56% of mentees mentioned the benefit of networking and building connections with other EC educators. Other themes included renewed motivation, planning, goal setting and time management. The perspective of one mentee summed up the overall sentiments about their experiences in the mentoring program:

This program has encouraged me to think about myself and what I wanted to personally achieve alongside the completion of my early childhood degree. Setting the goal came to be very motivating for me in ways that I didn’t expect. It has made me more driven, organised, and proud of myself which was exactly what I needed. Working full time and being the room leader of the nursery comes with its challenges and extremely busy and tiring days, completing uni subjects on top of work responsibilities was taking a toll on me and my ability to make time for myself.

Discussion

The mentoring program aimed to enable participants to experience and learn about effective mentoring through a mentee-mentor relationship, and to experience peer mentoring within small group pods and through a larger CoP with everyone involved in our project. Collaboration is an important element in professional learning programs (Schachter et al., 2019), and our approach reflected positive engagement through a reciprocal and bidirectional mentoring process. As such mentors and mentees could each be a teacher and a learner at various times, which in turn enabled building respect and trust both ways.

Mentees’ goal identification was indicative of the triad of challenges most mentees were juggling. Typically, this involved simultaneously fulfilling responsibilities as a university student, EC educator and parent/partner/carer in their everyday lives. LDC is recognised to be the most challenging Australian ECE context for the attraction and retention of educators and teachers (ACECQA, 2021) and 80% of our mentees indicated they were employed in a LDC setting. Therefore, support for educators in this context is important as the challenges they experience are exacerbated when studying to upskill is added to their workplace challenges. Throughout this study, it became evident that when embarking on university studies, a realistic consideration of the time available to engage in study, employment and one’s personal life is essential and key to educator wellbeing. Our study has highlighted that skilled mentoring with trusted mentors can assist in examining options for effective time management.

Mentors’ knowledge, skills, and mutual understanding of high-quality ECE settings directly impacts the quality of mentoring offered (Hobson et al., 2020; Klages et al., 2020; Orland-Barak, 2023). We purposively engaged skilled mentors who had completed our Mentor Training Program (see Andrews et al., 2024; Hadley et al., 2024). The knowledge and EC experiences of our ECT mentors directly contributed to the effectiveness of our mentoring program. For First Nations people, culturally safe recognition is crucial to building respectful and purposeful relationships (Barney et al., 2016; Hall, 2015; Oliver et al., 2013). We ensured this by having the mentors who worked with the First Nations mentees complete an Aboriginal Cultural Safety training program and be partnered with a First Nations cultural advisor. The openness of all mentees to discuss, yarn about or document and subsequently reflect on their goals in this program, was a good indicator of the emerging trust within the CoP in the pods led by the trained mentors. The Productivity Commission (2023) suggests “backfill for educators to devote time to mentoring and developing staff, backfill for staff participating in higher education programs, and on-site technology for staff engaging in remote learning”, (p. 242) as enablers for First Nations educators. We extend this to state that another factor critical to the success of mentoring programs such as ours is provision of appropriate remuneration for mentors.

Transitioning into higher education study can be challenging (Hadley & Andrews, 2015; Hall, 2015; Hearn & Kenna; 2020) especially if the student has not engaged with formal study previously or in a long time. The participation of mentees in the early stages of their degree was a carefully considered aspect in our project. In recognition, that independent learning can be challenging for diploma students upskilling to higher qualifications at university (Hadley & Andrews 2013) our targeted materials and purposively created small group pods and larger CoP provided effective means to generate knowledge, collegiality and reduce isolation. We noted that when students from the same university were grouped together this offered rich benefits with opportunities for exchanging ideas and resources. We recommend grouping within university cohorts be a key factor in future mentoring programs.

Limitations and conclusion

This study was funded for one year and therefore was not able to follow the mentees as they progressed through their university study. Longitudinal mentoring would have been beneficial for this group however, due to policy shifts arising from a change in government, timely further funding was not available. Another limitation was the lack of backfill funding available to support engagement in the program. The mentees in this project faced a triad of competing demands – study, work and personal – that affected their ability to fully engage in and to complete their studies, while participating effectively in work and personal relationships. The ongoing provision of government scholarships to support EC educators to upskill to degree level qualifications is essential. Especially at this time when the ECE sector is experiencing shortages of qualified teachers, coupled with the larger vision of providing quality ECE for all children in Australia. The Productivity Commission (2023) has identified that government investment in scholarships needs to be supplemented. Holistic support including ongoing mentoring was identified as crucial to educators who are undertaking university qualifications with additional mechanisms for First Nations students such as skill development, resources, and study guidance (Productivity Commission, 2023).

Universities and specifically initial teacher education providers also need to ensure they have support mechanisms in place with appropriate and information about accessing these, for example, creating cohort and/or buddy networks to build a sense of community. Future Tracks (2019) identified that timely provision of explicit information related to study success at university is also critical, as well as easy to locate information on courses and pathways, Recognition of Prior Learning advice and flexible program delivery. Additionally, it is important for academics to complete a cultural awareness program to raise cultural awareness and safety for First Nations teacher education students when at university (Rochecouste et al., 2018). This study endorses the importance of mentoring with a focus on realistic expectations for time management of competing demands. Evidence from this program clearly demonstrated how mentoring empowers student academic success and future career aspirations.