The sheer volume of literature on mentoring across a variety of disciplines is an indication of the high profile it has been afforded in recent years. This article draws on a structured analysis of more than 300 research-based articles on mentoring across three discipline areas in an attempt to make more valid inferences about the nature and outcomes of mentoring. It begins by reporting on the findings compiled from a database of research articles from educational contexts. These research-based articles are examined to determine the positive and more problematic outcomes of mentoring for the mentor, mentee, and the organization. A discussion of the findings from two other databases, namely, 151 research-based articles from business contexts and 82 articles from medical contexts, is provided, and commonalities across the three databases are highlighted. The article concludes with a discussion of key issues that administrators responsible for establishing mentoring programs should consider to maximize the experience of mentoring for all stakeholders.
Mounting research evidence demonstrates that effective ‘early childhood education and care’ (ECEC) has short‐term and longer‐term social and educational benefits for children and families. An allied body of evidence attests to the contribution of social capital (i.e. social networks and relationships based on trust) to such benefits. The research reported in this article bridges these two bodies of evidence by researching the social capital of children, their families and community members in the context of a state‐wide initiative (in Queensland, Australia) of integrated early childhood and family hubs. Drawn conceptually from the sociology of childhood, a methodological feature of the research is a broadened focus on children, not just adults, as reliable informants of their own everyday experience in ECEC. Some 138 children (aged 4–8 years) in urban and rural/remote localities in Queensland participated in research conversations about their social experience in and beyond ECEC. Children's social capital was found to be higher in the urban community than in the rural community, highlighting the potential of child and family hubs to strengthen children's social capital in those communities with few social facilities.
This paper presents child data generated in a pilot project of the ACCESS Study of Child and Family Services, a research program of how child and family services align with the interests and needs of local families. Underpinned by social capital theories, the pilot study was undertaken by a partnership of local early childhood services within an inner urban precinct of Brisbane. These services included two child care centres, two kindergartens/preschools, one playgroup, and one primary school. Seventy-six children aged three to eight years were asked, in informal conversations with their caregivers, to comment on their experiences in the service and to consider possible advice they might give to newcomers who were to take part in the service. Theoretical perspectives from the sociology of childhood are used to examine children's accounts of their lived experience in early childhood services.
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