Mentoring Graduate Students in Early Childhood Education

Introduction

The epigraph from Aeschylus serves as a motif for discussing the process and importance of doctoral mentorship in early childhood education (ECE). A mentor is like a gardener who helps to nurture a doctoral student to become future faculty member or educational leader. Mentorship, the individual relationship between a student and a faculty member, is cornerstone of a successful and positive doctoral experience in education. For early childhood doctoral students, mentorship is key in preparing future early childhood faculty members, researchers, and leaders. Given state-funded preschool initiatives in U.S. and increased numbers of young children utilizing early childhood special education (ECSE) services, there is a critical need for well-trained early childhood faculty members and leadership personnel (Robb et al., 2012).

There have been many federally funded interdisciplinary doctoral programs in early childhood education and early childhood special education (Woods et al., 2009). However, there are no known studies or conceptual papers published about the processes and practices involved in doctoral mentorship in ECE. This chapter seeks to contribute to the literature base by identifying and describing key components of doctoral mentorship in ECE. We will define doctoral mentorship, challenges in ECE doctoral mentorship, models of mentorship that could be used in ECE doctoral programs, and key components of effective doctoral mentorship in ECE.