This study examines the impact of mentoring based on Digital Storytelling as an induction program component aimed to improve the new teachers’ emotional support as well as their professional support. The 12 weeks mentoring program was carried out wi...
This study examines the impact of mentoring based on Digital Storytelling as an induction program component aimed to improve the new teachers’ emotional support as well as their professional support. The 12 weeks mentoring program was carried out with one researcher as a mentor and six new early childhood teachers as mentees. In addition, six case studies of new early childhood teachers are collated for analysis through the following questions:
1. How does a mentoring program based on digital storytelling support early adaptation as an early childhood teacher?
2. What is the educational meaning of a mentoring program based on digital storytelling for supporting early adaptation as an early childhood teacher?
Discussion of the research findings are firstly six early childhood teachers expressed their emotions and personal experiences through digital storytelling. Before the mentoring program each teacher had a year of teaching experience. Although they were working in the same early childhood context and had similar teaching experiences, they were at different stages of teaching. For example, Teacher A and Teacher D had changed their workplace, Teacher A changed from Kindergarten B to Kindergarten A and Teacher D changed from Kindergarten A to Kindergarten B. It appears they are in a similar situation yet during research it was discovered that Teacher A had decided to leave the early childhood profession, however, through a mentoring program based on digital storytelling, Teacher A had increased her competencies which resulted in her strongly identifying as an early childhood professional, which led to her remaining in the profession.
Secondly, the mentoring program based on digital storytelling’s role had an emphasis on emotional support rather than professional support. The 12 weeks program sounds too short to deeply understand and change a teacher’s emotion, efficacy, or their identity as an early childhood teacher however, despite this, the power of digital storytelling moved the teachers’ feelings and emotions. The digital storytelling provided an opportunity for these teachers to develop greater competencies and efficacy to cope with the job’s demands/stress’s and problem solving, as well as changing their perspective on life.
Thirdly, digital storytelling’s accessibility enables the teachers to convey a point of view, a dramatic question or emotional content via the storyteller’s voice, soundtrack, pacing and using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer. In this study these elements increased a teacher’s accessibility to digital storytelling. When the teachers accessed digital storytelling, they immersed themselves in the digital story and felt enjoyment and fun, it touched their feelings and some felt emotional recovery through the story.
Fourthly, the mentor’s role was more psychological rather than professional. Using the power of digital storytelling, the researcher as a mentor was able to interact with the teacher in a way that they can understand the mentor’s teaching experience in the survival stage (induction stage). This created sympathy towards to the mentor’s first teaching experience. Furthermore the digital storytelling, short weekly journal and interview process created an atmosphere for both mentor and mentees to be reflectors. This promoted an organized and professional learning community, mentees completely opened up to the mentor, thus the mentor was able to understand their levels of stress, anxiety. With a trustful and calm atmosphere, the mentor supported them to improve their psychological well-being.
Fifthly, the creation of an autobiographical digital storytelling supported me as the mentor to become a better early childhood professional. When I created my autobiographical digital story, it provided an opportunity for me to reflect on my professional career. The mentor could reassess her philosophy and approaches to different strategies. By doing this, I created a strong identity as an early childhood professional and improved my own competencies and gained greater personal satisfaction. After creating my autobiographical digital story, I understood that when I became an experienced early childhood teacher, the negative experiences in the first year of teaching do fade away and these experiences are replaced by feeling that these are rewarding experiences to be retained in a professional context.
Finally, to further conceptualize, the mentoring program suggested incorporates the idea that one program does not fit every early childhood teacher and implications for teacher education and policy are also discussed.
본 연구는 연구자가 멘토가 되어 사립유치원에 1년 이상의 근무 경력 있는 6명의 초임유아교사들을 대상으로 12주 동안 디지털 스토리텔링을 기반으로 하여 초임유아교사의 교직적응을 지원...
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