The Role of Mentoring in the Success of Women Leaders of Color in Higher Education

While numerous scholars have investigated the role of mentoring in the success of women of color in faculty positions, few have examined how mentoring affects the development of women leaders of color in higher education. Using qualitative data gathered from interviews with women leaders of color at Hispanic-serving institution, this study presents findings from cross-case studies to provide insights into perceptions of mentoring and various types of mentorship across the different levels within the organization. Supported by the empirical data, this paper challenges traditional notions of mentoring and advocates for a more critical approach to mentoring to reflect the multidimensionality of the mentoring process and explores how mentoring can be used as a strategy to facilitate institutional change.     

Relational-cultural Theory as a Framework for Mentoring in Academia: Toward Diversity and Growth-fostering Collaborative Scholarly Relationships

Mentoring in academia that encourages collaboration and interpersonal relationships is important in helping newer faculty members attain success. Developing such programs is challenging within our prevailing academic context that rewards competition and individually delineated success. We propose that Relational Cultural Theory, a feminist approach to healthy psychological growth, developed by Jean Baker Miller and colleagues at the Stone Center at Wellesley College, is an appropriate framework to guide effective mentoring programs, with a particular focus on cross-cultural mentoring of protégés in academia who are women and/or of color. We suggest the traditionally individual-oriented definition of success in academia could be modified toward more emphasis on collaboration, recognizing, and celebrating the rich diversity within academia. This emphasis can strengthen organizations by increasing and embracing diversity, adding to the richness of ideas and approaches to societal problems. Mentoring is defined through an expanded view that recognizes healthy collaboration as an indicator of success in academia.     

Leadership in Hard-to-Staff Schools: Novice Teachers as Mentors

In our study, we chronicle the development of two novice urban teachers who developed in to mentors in the third year of their teaching. The two novice teachers were hired to serve as mentors to new teachers in or near their school. Interviews with the teachers about their experiences identified three areas of discussion as a result of their mentoring role that included reflection on the impact to their own practice, identification of the need for time management skills, and realization of the reasons for mentoring. The results of the novice teachers serving as mentors were positive for the mentors and helped to set the stage to sustain the mentoring program.     

Mentors for beginning teachers as middle leaders: the messy work of recontextualising

ABSTRACT

Mentors for beginning teachers in schools are often unacknowledged middle leaders in their schools. Through their work with beginning teachers, they not only provide local leadership in their contexts, they influence and shape the work of the next generation of teachers. Government-funded mentor training for the purpose of supporting beginning teachers in Education Queensland schools commenced in 2014 (Queensland Government. [2017]. Mentoring Beginning Teachers. http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/development/employee/teachers/mentoring.html). In Queensland, Australia, over 3000 experienced teachers have completed a two-day professional learning Mentoring Beginning Teacher (MBT) programme. Upon completion, mentors were expected to design and enact a mentoring programme that met the beginning teachers’ needs in their context, using the dialogic mentoring principles they had learned to fulfil the policy goals of increasing the number of beginning teachers transitioning to full registration. This article draws on Bernstein’s ([2000]. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Revised ed. Rowman & Littlefield) concepts of recontextualisation, and horizontal and vertical discourses of knowledge to understand how mentor teachers negotiated and enacted their roles as middle leaders in schools in diverse schooling contexts.     

Being Mentored: The Experience of Women Faculty

Mentoring has been proposed as a means to enhance the career success of women faculty in the academic environment. This phenomenological study was undertaken to understand and describe the essential nature and meaning of the experience of being mentored for women faculty. In-depth conversational interviews were conducted with nine women faculty who stated that they had been mentored while in a faculty role. Their mentoring relationships were formal and informal, with male and female mentors of varying ranks, and both internal and external to the protégés' institutions. Through an analysis of the interview text, five essential themes of the experience of being mentored for women faculty emerged. These essential themes are (a) having someone who truly cares and acts in one's best interest, (b) a feeling of connection, (c) being affirmed of one's worth, (d) not being alone, and (e) politics are part of one's experience.     

Women mentoring in the academe: a faculty cross-racial and cross-cultural experience

Two women faculty members, one White from the southeastern United States and one Black African from Zimbabwe, purposefully explored their informal mentoring relationship with the goal of illuminating the complexities associated with their cross-racial, cross-cultural experience. Concentrating on their four-year mentor-mentee academic relationship at a predominantly White institution (PWI), these women employed a dialogic duoethnographic methodology to uncover emerging, nuanced characteristics contributing to the positive nature of their mentoring experience. Calling upon a seminal nine-function mentoring framework focused on advancing mentee personal growth and professional advancement, the authors, engaged in critical interplay of dialogic considerations of their mentoring experiences, relationship, and literature. The authors revealed a distinct cross-cultural and cross-racial journey where each, as participant researcher, uncovered a deeper appreciation for the importance of engaged dialog. Emerging is a complex interplay of understandings about trust, care, and power dynamics as factors in defining mentoring relationships that work for good.     

How Assigned Faculty Mentors View their Mentoring Relationships: An Interview Study of Mentors in Medical Education

This qualitative study of 29 physician mentors reports their perspectives on mentoring medical students in a well‐respected medical school’s formal, assigned, longitudinal mentoring program that has a curricular component in the second year. Using a phenomenologic inductive approach, common themes identified centered on mentors’ relationships with their students and the characteristics of the relationships. Most mentors said their relationships solidified in the second year, where curricular responsibilities included teaching and evaluation. Mentors saw their roles change, yet relationships continued to develop as mentees advanced through medical school. They were surprised when students sought contact, support, and advice in years three and four of their programs. Mentors worried whether they “did enough” for their students, yet described their experiences and relationships as rewarding. Mentors subsequently found satisfaction in the continuing relationship during the clinical training years. The researchers note the importance of the curricular component for providing a purpose and structure for relationship development and in facilitating relationship development in this assigned mentoring program.     

Leadership Development through Mentoring in Higher Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Leaders of Color

In this collaborative autoethnography, we explored how 14 academic and administrative leaders of color working in faith-based higher education have experienced personal and professional mentoring, and how mentoring experiences have influenced their leadership development. All participants identified a wide array of developmental relationships that had contributed to their leadership development, although not all of the relationships were labeled as mentoring. Whereas female participants (11 in total) relied on these relationships primarily for psychosocial support, three male participants had more actively sought out mentoring relationships to develop career skills and expand their professional network. Particularly, for the female participants, mentoring took place mostly outside their professional settings. We argue that personal and institutional factors contributed to the participants’ limited access to professional mentoring within their higher education contexts. This collaborative autoethnography process, which lasted at least six months for most participants, unexpectedly provided professional mentoring opportunities for these leaders of color.     

The Experiences of Selected Mentors: A Cross-cultural Examination of the Dyadic Relationship in School-based Mentoring

To address comprehensive program services that are self-sustaining and systemic in nature, school counselors and educational leaders have increasingly implemented school-based mentoring to impact student and school success. In this qualitative case study, we examined the experiences of 11 selected mentors and their respective dyadic relationships in school-based mentoring with at-risk elementary school students to understand ways mentors might better form closer dyadic bonds yielding longer mentoring relationships. Four metathemes emerged: (a) encouragement, (b) relating style, (c) time and presence, and (d) language nuances. Specific components within these metathemes increased both synergy in the dyad and satisfaction for the mentors. Ethnic and cultural dyad characteristics are discussed and presented via proposed effective practices for cross-cultural, cross-age mentoring.     

Mentoring of Women Faculty: The Role of Organizational Politics and Culture

This article reports on a key finding of a phenomenological study on the mentoring experiences of women faculty. The study revealed the political climate of the organization as an essential attribute of this experience. Women faculty identified organizational culture and gender issues that affected the mentoring they received. This study suggests the need for human resource and organization development initiatives to facilitate the provision of academic mentoring for women faculty—individually, departmentally, and culturally—as a means to foster transformation and change in academic institutions.Sharon K. Gibson is an Assistant Professor of organization learning and development at the University of St. Thomas. She received her Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Minnesota. She holds an M.S.W. degree and graduate certificate in labor and industrial relations from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from Cornell University. Her research interests focus on developmental relationships including mentoring and coaching, strategic human resource and organization development, and adult learning.     

Butterfly Power in the Art of Mentoring Deaf and Hard of Hearing College Students

This article describes the ways in which critical events in the lives of college students may contribute to their career development and personal well being. These critical events are referred to as 'butterflies', adopting as a metaphor that concept from chaos theory which states that relatively small events can have large effects. The study analyzes these events and their effects from the perspective of the students' mentors. Results of the study are related to other concepts from chaos theory including bifurcation points, autopoiesis and emergence. The study explores both the different kinds of critical events students experience as well as how mentoring may help students to deal with them. The role of the mentor as interpreter of events, as change agent and as intervener are identified. The article argues that mentors need to be aware of the potential power of critical events in the career development of college students.     

农民工非正规就业的权益保障缺失及其矫治

农民工现象是工业化、城市化进程的结果.农民工绝大多数就业于城市的非正规部门.非正规就业部门由于存在法制不健全、市场机制和环境不完善、劳动组织化程度低导致农民工的合法权益得不到应有保障,制约着该就业方式的健康发展.因此,现阶段要发展非正规就业必须从制度上和政策上加以矫正和规范.     

逻辑的非形式转向

逻辑转向这一概念的意义,在于强调逻辑学对其它大学科在全局性根本性层面上的重大应用价值,以及此种应用对自身发展的深刻影响。逻辑的非形式转向,指的是在西方被称为“新浪潮”的“批判性思维运动”。这一转向的目标,是有效地发挥逻辑在素质教育中的作用。逻辑的非形式转向为推进和优化我国的逻辑教学,为推进我国的素质教育提供了不应忽视的机会。     

African-American Women in the Professoriate: Addressing Social Exclusion and Scholarly Marginalization through Mentoring

African-American women and other underrepresented faculty members often report experiences of social exclusion and scholarly marginalization in mainstream institutions of higher education. This lack of inclusion challenges their retention and hinders them from becoming productive members of the professoriate, positioning them at a disadvantage for achieving tenure and promotion. In this article, mentoring is conceptualized as socialization and examined as a strategy for addressing social exclusion and scholarly marginalization as associated with the advancement of African-American women faculty in academe. Highlighting traditional and nontraditional mentoring initiatives and formal and informal networks, the discussion features the idea of a broad, flexible network of support. In addition, recommendations from the existing literature are offered for mentors, mentees, and academic department chairs to facilitate effective mentoring strategies.     

农村非正规金融:社会主义新农村建设的重要力量

在全面建设社会主义新农村背景下,农村金融制度的改革与发展显得尤为重要。在现阶段,社会主义新农村建设中存在着严重的金融抑制。从农村的实际情况出发,对农村非正规金融的现状进行分析,指出农村非正规金融提高了资金的运作效率,缓解了社会主义新农村建设中资金供求的矛盾,推动了多样化竞争格局的农村金融体系的形成,对社会主义新农村建设起到的重要作用。只有量体裁衣的发展农村非正规金融才能更好的为社会主义新农村建设服务。     

Mentoring in Contexts of Cultural and Political Friction: Moral Dilemmas of Mentors and Their Management in Practice

This paper examines the nature of moral dilemmas mentors from three different national groups (Jewish, Druze, and Arab) encounter in their work in Israeli Arab schools, how they manage these dilemmas in practice, and how the nature of particular dilemmas might connect to their management strategies. Given the multicultural and politically conflictive context of the Israeli society, a cultural and political reading of in-service mentors’ moral dilemmas reveals that mentors’ encounter and management of recurrent moral dilemmas is embedded in cultural and political issues in a way that seem to hinder their mentoring practice. Preparation programs for mentors need to highlight awareness of mentors’ own culture and that of their mentees in order to implement a culturally and politically responsive practice.     

解读被权力扭曲的女性命运——读毕飞宇的《平原》

毕飞宇的小说《平原》是围绕端方和吴蔓铃周围的人物关系建构起来的关于爱情与亲情的权力关系网。权力在每个人身上都深深地打上了烙印,作家对权力的探询也深入到日常生活的场景。而女性命运在权力的镜象下遭受到双重的压制,男性的集体无意识在创作中使得女性失去了自己言说的权利,而作者在参与阅读的过程也因为本身性别的不同而对作品有着不同的阅读体验。     

Moving beyond induction and mentoring: The influence of networks on novice teacher experiences

In this research, I investigated the social support networks of four novice elementary teachers. Data were obtained through one-on-one interviews, egocentric social network map creation, and observations. Though the four teachers had varying levels of satisfaction, at the completion of their second year of teaching, all four expressed intent to remain in their positions and the profession. Examination of the four teachers’ social support networks and work contexts suggests that these novice teachers need and value the following supports: emotional, contextual, relational, academic, and social. The types of supports each of the four teachers accessed were functions of the type and locations of the relationships they formed but also reveal the priority the teachers placed on the various supports.     

艾丽斯·沃克《紫颜色》的色彩隐喻解析

小说《紫颜色》以色彩命名,其艺术特色之一在于运用了色彩隐喻的修辞手法。在小说中,西丽亚对紫色和红色的追求与拥有暗示着她的艰难成长历程;"黑色女神"莎格的红黑装搭配象征着她的个性和尊贵;上帝的黑白之论阐释了黑人女性的精神解放之路。这三组颜色词的搭配运用增强了小说主题的表现力。     

The Components of On-Site Mentoring Contracts: Perceptions of Israeli Mentors and School Counseling Interns

This study examined the perceptions of 159 on-site mentor counselors and 172 school counseling interns from four graduate programs in Israel regarding the main components of working contracts during school-based internships. Qualitative analysis led to data clustering into four broad categories: a) rules and procedures; b) the intern’s work: objectives, content and boundaries; c) the mentoring relationship; and d) ethical standards of practice. Differences between mentors and interns within each category are discussed as well as the possibility of developing a standardized core contract as a platform from which to negotiate unique customized contracts.