Members of the Mentoring in ECEC project steering group and representatives from the University involved in the project held a meeting and discussed the provision of mentor training as well as research on the afternoon of Friday 12 January 2018. Discussions were stimulated by the significance of mentoring for kindergarten teachers who are just starting out in their careers and for those who have taken a year off from work and are returning to work.
Mentoring was described as being a means of supporting new kindergarten teachers with challenges relating to the early stages of their careers and as being a way of integrating into a working community. Pedagogical responsibility was characterised as follows: ‘Pedagogical responsibility is like a cloak that you need to weave by yourself.’ This and many other thoughts were written down and will be taken into account when more detailed planning of project-related research begin