Mentoring and Transformative Early Years Practitioners - Essay Example

A CRITICAL DISCUSSION ON MENTORING AND TRANSFORMATIVE EARLY YEARS PRACTITIONERS Mentoring is as a process of creating and supporting the relationship that benefit both parties involved. It describes a relationship where a senior, wiser and vastly experienced person offers guidance and pieces of advice to a young and inexperienced person (Bolton, 2014). The mentor acts as a teacher and a friend as he or she nurtures the young one. A mentor is more role specific in the sense that it applies to all the formal advisory relationships with practitioners while practitioners will not necessarily be formal students but will usually base on early year’s settings. The practitioner is a term that reflects the work-based situation (Bolton, 2014). The mentoring role is recognizable across all areas of the society. It starts with the responsibility accepted by the mentor through the pre-industrial controllers and finally the apprenticeships in industrial trade sectors (Paige and Craft, 2007). The idea of a more practical person offering guidance and knowledge transmission has become culturally embedded in our societies. The mentoring system developed by the corporate world is integral to the induction and supported the development of the newbies. Some practices have spread to the wider community in recent years giving rise to various programs in schools and colleges for peer mentoring, churches, youth organizations, and parent support centers. In initial teaching training, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) induction programs and continuous professional development, the mentoring process is highly vital within the training institutes and schools (Proctor, 2008). Comprehending the process in education is a more refined action now resulting from the various research undertaken. Developments in early education and the extent of a provision in the early years have resulted in the use of mentoring across the context of conventional professional. Examples include visiting teachers as mentors in a community pre-school and private days for nursery kids where they reflect on service integration and multi-disciplinary work within the field (Shaw, 2014). Understanding mentoring process and development practice does not occur in isolation from a national or organizational culture (Brockbank and McGill, 2006). Mentoring systems should incorporate the best practices ranging from models to the clarity of objectives regarding the purpose it serves, expectations and success (Brock, 2015). Evolution of mentoring practice in early years has taken into account external pressures just like teacher training programs that accommodate political ideology as well as government policy objectives (Early Years - An International Journal of Research and Development, 2012). In early years, mentors are made aware of the socio-political context in which they operate. Mentoring in early year settings should be a dynamic process of advice and support system that makes sense of reflective thinking and practices. Successful mentoring sets within a system of reflective practices and action-reflection cycle based on key principles of confidentiality, clarity, and credibility and ultimately engender trust between the parties involved. Reflective mentors, therefore, support reflective practitioners (Cooper et al, 2012). To get quality within a multi-disciplinary, early childhood workforce is necessary to practitioners and high on political agenda. The key principles underlying the policy under National Childcare Strategies in The United Kingdom include integrated services, partnership, continuity, and children progress. These include all the services from birth to age nineteen as enshrined in Children Act of 2004 (Hargreaves, 2013). The policy has included in concrete terms a range of measures that include curriculum guidance at the foundation stage, birth, children centers and early years of child development and childcare partnerships (Lindon, 2012). The framework of training and the common core of knowledge for practitioners demonstrate links to the competency-based model of the teacher-training agency. Modeling of the teachers roles, teaching assistants as well as workforce strategy produce tremendous impacts on practitioners in the foundation stage and performs the changing role of schools in the community under the extended school projects. The new practitioner debate is one of the most significant developments in comprehending the adult role in integrated services and moves towards birth to five progressive frameworks for the children’s early learning and development (Moon, 2007). In a context such as this, the mentor’s role increases in importance and complexity especially work-based training as an established element of vocational qualifications and academic programs stretching to higher education. The identification of a mentor’s role regards the policy framework. They assist in the knowledge and skill transmission thus encourages practitioners to develop reflective practice (Adamson, 2012). In the light of this, the mentor acts as a bridge between the academic forum and the every day’s experiences encountered by practitioners in their early years. The most important role of a mentor is to promote reflection. It will develop the confidence as well as competence required of an individual practitioner’s working with theories, philosophy and principles of the early year’s sector. Despite the role being common in all contexts, mentors will consider the fact that student practitioners are not always inexperienced or young. In business practices, experienced individuals will also be assigned a mentor to assist with a focus on a new set of skills and precise responsibilities (Reed and Canning, 2010). The new professional and management qualifications needed for school leadership, and integrated leadership centers reflect the emerging emphasis on the ongoing professional development for managers in their early years. These have resulted in Mentor functions within these programs. The importance of mentorship in continued professional development has been recognized and has become part of the justification for the mentoring practice. It is also dependable on the fact that practitioners in the various workplace also contribute to such in-house training variations as crucial professional friends or the formalized mentor teacher schemes started through local authorities (Robins and Callan, 2009). Mentoring in early years has something to do with the passing on of wisdom from generation to generation. The role of the mentor should be should be framed about given frameworks such as training or qualification requirements (Hawkins and Smith, 2009). The approaches outline principles that apply to the contexts of early years. If the framework within which practitioner and mentor operate is determined by the curriculum for the child and vision of the professional practitioner within it, then it is possible to suggest a more precise definition for mentoring. Mentors normally help practitioners to get answers to challenging situations, assist with job action strategies, and promote both nurture and challenge within the relationship’s boundaries (Tarrant, 2013). These help the practitioners and encourage motivation in the workplace. In the early years, the mentor will, therefore, work within a defined role by the requirements of the philosophical, political and traditional rules as outlined above. A good mentor must possess some qualities such as good humor, inspirational, enthusiastic, supportive, problem solver, knowledgeable and competency among others. For the sake of fairness, such people rarely exist thus it is important for continuous training and professional development for mentors (Hawkins and Shohet, 2007). Underpinning the mentorship skill is a set of facts that they will have to be successful practitioners themselves and recognized as streetwise. In this regard, they will encourage evaluation and reflection in the practitioner. The particular mix of these qualities will enable the mentor to create realistic expectations and a sense of proportion to a complex role that can be challenging at times. In line with other mentoring models, the early years mentor will inevitably comprise these qualities with various approach mix and strategies such as advisory, guidance, teaching, leadership, counseling, and facilitation of others (Thompson and Thompson, 2008). Each of these qualities has distinct roles and specific activities they perform. Besides these personal and professional qualities, mentors in the early years will have a philosophy of mentoring and training that are in tandem with the traditions of the sector. Most of the practitioners will reorganize the concept of scaffolding for development and learning from early theoretical approaches. These draws a quantitative framework to work with the children in which the mentor will consistently apply the underlying strategies and beliefs concerning adult interactions. The mode of conducting early mentorship programs will set the pace for experience and outcomes for the practitioner (Proctor, 2008). Mentorship, therefore, provides a reflective space in learning and teaching spectra where mentors pose questions and use discussions to enable them get wisdom. A strong ethical element of monitoring that involves helping practitioners to handle complex issues such as children’s rights, diversity, inclusion as well as social justice exists. All these are vital elements of well-informed early years practices (Infed.org, 2013). Also to the noted qualities, mentors will need a fair amount of commitment to open access to training for the practicalities and understanding of mentorship. The mentors offer the practitioner both personal and organizational strategies the enable them to handle the challenges, responsibilities, stress and pressures of early years practice (Scie.org.uk, 2015). Being a mentor in early years is a dynamic system of advice and support in line with the ongoing professional training and development with is sensible to the reflective practice (Moon, 2007). Mentors help this process by assisting in knowledge and skills transmission, guiding, induction and nurturing the practitioners, and linking theoretical models and philosophical approaches to practice. They also reflect the standards and understand quality issues as well as promoting shared good practice and professional values. The find solutions to problems, exercise professional judgment, enhance organizational and individual developments as well as drawing on and evolving the research for the sector. Early years mentors will operate within an appropriate framework that would facilitate the development of the practitioner (Brockbank and McGill, 2006). Early mentors operate in clear, specific contexts with specific outcomes, expectations and process based on combination and variation of activities. These include mentoring, coaching, modeling, counseling, and teaching, being a buddy, advising and leading (Study.sagepub.com, 2015). The underlying principle of transparency at all stages of this process and communications to the practitioner reflects on the outcome for the mentor’s input and the practitioner alike. Bibliography Bolton, G., 2014, Reflective Practice, (4th Ed) London: Sage Publications Ltd. Brock, A (eds), 2015, The Early Years Reflective Practice Handbook, London: Routledge Proctor, B., 2008, Group Supervision. A Guide to Creative Practice (2nd Ed), London: Sage Publications Ltd. Reed, M. and Canning, N., 2010, Reflective Practice in Early Years, London: Sage Publications Ltd. Robins, A. and Callan, S. (eds), 2009, Managing Early years Settings: Supporting and Leading Teams, London: Sage Publications Ltd Tarrant, P., 2013, Reflective Practice and Professional Development, London: Sage Publications Ltd. Thompson, N., 2006, Promoting Equality. Challenging discrimination and oppression, (4th Edn) UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Thompson, S. and Thompson, N., 2008, The Critically Reflective Practitioner, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Brockbank, A. and McGill, I., 2006, Facilitating Reflective Learning through Mentoring and Coaching, London: Kogan Page. Hargreaves, J. and Page, L., 2010, Reflective Practice, Polity. Hawkins, P. and Shohet, R, 2007, Supervision in Helping Professions, (3rd Ed), Maidenhead: Open University Press. Hawkins, P. and Smith, N., 2007, Coaching, Mentoring and Organization Consultancy: Supervision and Development, Maidenhead: Open University Press. Lindon, J., 2012, Reflective practice and early year’s professionalism. London: Hodder Education. Moon, J., 2007, Critical Thinking: An Exploration of Theory and Practice, Taylor and Francis. Paige-Smith, A. and Craft, A. (Eds), 2007, Developing Reflective Practice in the early Years, Maidenhead: Open University Press. Early Years - An International Journal of Research and Development. (2012). Early Years, 32(3), pp.328-328. Shaw, E. 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