The research on mentorship in the professoriate is extensive and substantial. New faculty benefit from having sustained and focused interactions with a more knowledgeable other who is able to shepherd them through the induction phase of their academic career. Professional support, collaboration, and sponsorship have always been critical, but this need is even more pronounced in the isolating times of the pandemic. During the 2020-2022 academic years, junior faculty were asked to navigate new spaces which would be exceedingly trying under normal circumstances, but even more so while under severe restrictions. This paper will examine the usefulness of alternative ways of mentoring that can assist incoming faculty. Strategies for administrators and senior faculty responsible for facilitating these connections will be explored.
Tag: mentoring
Faculty Perception on Support to Do Their Job Well
Research has commonly suggested that adequate and appropriate mentoring and faculty perception of support for a work-life balance are important factors in the recruitment, development, and retention of university faculty. To better understand the role of these factors in faculty job performance at teaching universities, faculty from such a university were surveyed about their experiences with these forms of support and the factors that influenced their perception of the ability to do their job well. Results indicate that faculty mentoring was an important predictor for support at the department level. Additionally, perceived work-life balance was a significant factor at the college and university levels.
Mentoring International Teaching Assistants: A Case Study of Improving Teaching Practices
While there exists a considerable body of research focusing on international teaching assistants’ (ITAs’) linguistic, sociocultural, and instructional challenges, less is known about the successful developmental trajectories of this group of international educators of American students. This research aims to fulfill this research gap using a case study approach (Yin, 2003). The study involved ITAs from STEM majors in six collaborative mentoring sessions prior and upon video recording of three lessons taught by the ITAs to undergraduate students. The mentoring sessions were designed to facilitate ITAs’ reflections on their teaching with the use of structured protocols to help guide the discussions. All the collected data were analyzed using content analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The results highlight the incidents of professional growth exhibited by the participating ITAs during their actual teaching. This study also tracks the ITAs’ reflections on teaching through the mediational dialogues (Vygotsky, 1978) with the mentor. Finally, the paper discusses lessons learned through launching a mentoring project with a group of ITAs.