The Importance of Mentoring Alec Warner – The University of Queensland

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians both past and present, who represent the land on which we’re meeting today.

A little about myself  Kuku Yalanji – Mossman, QLD  Final year BEd (Primary) student at UQ  Minoring in Physical Education  Graduated from high school in 2009  Graduated from the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) with a Cert IV of Performing Arts majoring in Singing and minoring in Acting  Jane Harrisons Stolen 2011  National Anthem NRL All Stars 2012

What do we know?  Currently, the enrolment and program completion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initial teacher education students across all education programs at The University of Queensland is well below the national average.  The recruitment, retention and graduation of more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers is a key focus of the national and federally funded More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers Initiative (MATSITI, 2012).  As you all know, the close the gap scheme set forward by the higher education sector is ensuring that there are always active strategies being put in place to increase the number of indigenous teaching graduates. On top of this there is also a strong emphasis on these graduates preparedness to enter and stay in the teaching profession.

What is mentoring?

University of Queensland Mentoring Program Becoming, Belonging & Being

University of Queensland Mentoring Program Approach and methodology to the mentoring program.  One-year pilot study that took place in the School of Education at The University of Queensland.  The reference groups recognized were a group of indigenous and non-indigenous educators undertaking their professional careers at two schools within the south-west region of Brisbane.  Program further led to the fruition of substantial relationships between upcoming indigenous pre-service teachers and these schools using both practical and research connections to do so

University of Queensland Mentoring Program Approach and methodology to the mentoring program.  As outlined earlier - limited amount of Indigenous students across all education programs that are currently being offered at UQ.  Due to timetabling and outside commitments, sampling size was small but nonetheless effective.

University of Queensland Mentoring Program Reference Group Meeting (August 2013) In August 2013 Reference Group members met to ensure that the goals, approaches and outcomes of the project were firmly established, understood and agreed upon by all members. Participants recruited (August 2013) The Project Manager contacted and finalised participants for the study. One-on-one interviews with teachers and students (August 2013) One-on-one interviews with teachers and students were undertaken to explore the life history, background, experiences and aspirations of participants before commencing the program. Professional Development Day (September 2013) This was undertaken in September 2013 and involved preparing the students and mentor teachers for participation in the mentoring program. Indigenous guest speakers spoke about their experiences as teachers and the process of mentoring and workshops on mentoring were held. Weekly visits to schools (September 2013–November 2013) Students and teachers participated in weekly mentoring sessions over eight weeks. The Project Manager took primary responsibility for the mentoring program, coordinating the mentoring visits to each school and managing the ongoing data collection and transcription work associated with this stage of the project. Reference Group Meeting (November 2013) In November 2013 Reference Group members discussed the progress of the program, data collection methods; outcomes and moving forward. Individual interviews/post- evaluations (December 2013) Individual interviews were undertaken to contribute to understanding the mentoring experience for students and teachers, as well as to inform the future development of the program.

Reference Group Meeting (March 2014) In March 2014 Reference Group members discussed the content of the program, data collection methods; outcomes and moving forward. Further participants recruited (April 2014) The Project Manager contacted and finalised further participants for the study. One-on-one interviews with teachers and students (May 2014) One-on-one interviews with teachers and students were undertaken to explore the life history, background, experiences and aspirations of participants before commencing the program. Professional Development Day (May 2014) This was undertaken in May 2014 and involved preparing the students and mentor teachers for participation in the mentoring program. Indigenous guest speakers spoke about their experiences as teachers and the process of mentoring along and workshops on mentoring were held (see Appendix A for the program). Weekly visits to schools (May 2014–August 2014) Students and teachers participated in weekly mentoring sessions over eight weeks. The Project Manager took primary responsibility for coordinating the mentoring visits to each school and the mentoring program, and managed the ongoing data collection and transcription work associated with this stage of the project. Individual interviews/post- evaluations (August 2014) Individual interviews were undertaken to contribute to understanding the mentoring experience for students and teachers, as well as to inform the future development of the program. Collation, analysis and writing up data (August 2014) Project Manager collated and analysed the data collected from the two sets of individual interviews conducted with the teacher mentors and initial teacher education students, the reflective audio diary entries and the post-evaluations. The Project Leader and the Project Manager prepared a report on the research findings. Reference Group Meeting (August 2014) In August 2014 Reference Group members met to evaluate the project results to ascertain if the objectives and outcomes had been achieved and to discuss plans for continuation of the program in 2014 and possible expansion of the mentoring program into other university sites. University of Queensland Mentoring Program

Themes within the data Our research is qualitative, phenomenological and narrative based in that it is framed around mentoring as an experience and the telling of that experience through personal and collective storying. Data was collected from:  evaluation of the PD Days  pre-interviews with students and mentor teachers  weekly student and mentor teacher reflective audio diaries completed during the eight-week mentoring program  mentor teachers’ post-reflection questionnaires.

Themes within the data

University of Queensland Mentoring Program In this pilot study, our aims were to evaluate the use and effectiveness of a mentoring program as a positive intervention for building and sustaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initial teacher education students’ participation in tertiary education programs, their self-efficacy as teachers, their professional identity as teachers and their readiness to teach. Recommendations:  Mentoring programs such as this one should be implemented at universities across Australia to build and sustain Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initial teacher education students’ participation in tertiary education programs.  Mentoring programs need to be closely coordinated with student initial teacher education course requirements.  Mentoring programs need to be undertaken with ongoing input from a community of Indigenous teachers.  Mentoring programs need a Program Manager to coordinate the activities. This Program Manager could be situated in either an Indigenous Studies Unit or within an Education School/Unit; in either case, dialogue between the two Units is crucial.

Where to next?  To not move this program forward I feel would be an absolute loss for education circles across the board. The pilot program maintained a positive experience overall for all involved and confirmed that the students at the forefront of the mentor- mentee relationships had in fact chosen the right career for themselves and were beginning to make sense of the paths they will take from this very moment.

Where to next?  Our hope for this mentoring program is that it can continue to contribute in a number of ways to teacher education research; to our theoretical understanding of mentoring through, around and across the boundaries of race; to the experiences of mentors and mentees in a cross-cultural mentoring relationship; and to the ways that mentoring is experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initial teacher education students to develop their professional identities, self-efficacy and readiness to teach.  The next stages will be to secure ongoing internal funding to continue the program at UQ and to develop the mentoring program into a larger study across multiple university sites.

Personal Reflections  The benefits?  Where to next?

References Mackinlay, E., & Barney, K. (2014). Becoming, belonging and being in the profession: A pilot mentoring program for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander pre-service teachers. The University of Queensland, Brisbane.

Thank you