Mentoring is a facilitated process involving two or more individuals that have a shared
interest in professional learning and development. Mentoring in early childhood is
also seen as a leadership development strategy. Traditionally, mentoring has been used
as a ‘solution strategy’ to enhance teacher pedagogical practice. Accordingly, what
is mentoring and who can be a mentor are important to consider when assessing the
veracity of the positive outcomes it claims. Ths paper will unpack the conceptual
evolution of mentoring as a top-down model to the current collegial model by examining
the defiitions, functions, approaches and contexts of mentoring. By examining key
fidings of research on mentoring conducted during 2000–2012, implications for the
early childhood sector are discussed.