She returned to Victoria to complete a PhD titled A New Debate About Children and Childhood.
[1][2] Mitchell then joined the faculty of the University of Waikato, rising to full professor in 2019.
Mitchell was Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022 and 2023, working with Frances Press on democratic education across different contexts.
[2] Mitchell is critical of privatisation and profit-making in the early childhood sector, and some of her books and articles lay out ways in which education can be made more democratic.
[7][8] These grants were both concerned with increasing belonging (mana whenua) for migrant and immigrant families through early childhood experiences, and resulted in the production of materials for use in multicultural ECE settings.