Peer mentoring program offered out of TRU for early childhood educators receives $1.4 million boost

Dr. Doan says the program stemmed from recent statistics from Early Childhood Educators of B.C. that show up to 50 per cent of early childhood educators leave the field after the first five years — many citing a lack of support.

The mentoring is meant to improve retention of educators, and encourage learning from one another.

“Right now, we have 17 communities-of-practice up and running,” explains Doan, “In our second year we’ll have 25, and in our third year, we’ll have 35 individual communities-of-practice with up to 500 early childhood educators.”

According to Will Garrett-Petts, the Associate Vice President of research and graduate studies, TRU’s early childhood education program is full every year. Interest in the field is high, but new educators need a way to deal with feelings of frustration or challenges when they start working.

“We need that kind of support, especially in the care giving areas more than ever,” he notes, “We can see that with early childhood educators, we can see that with nurses, we can see that throughout the province and throughout the world.”

Dr. Doan is working with the Early Childhood Educators of BC on the program, and the association’s executive director Emily Gawlick notes some participants of the initial pilot have said it’s one of the reasons they stayed in the field.

“This way it gives them an opportunity to talk about their work, to talk about the triumphs, the heart aches, the things that are going on in a day to day basis. We didn’t have those opportunities before.”

This fall marked the start of three funded years for program operation and Dr. Doan’s hope is it’ll eventually be continued in a provincial or federal capacity.

“Now I’m maybe seeing it as, ‘Let’s go national.'”

by Dylana Kneeshaw

Peer mentoring program offered out of TRU for early childhood educators receives $1.4 million boost

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