Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1007003809
Link(s) to full text
LAC copy
LAC copy
Author
Compton, Sharon Marie,1959-
Title
Meanings of the mentoring relationship between junior and senior faculty members in higher education.
Degree
Ph. D. -- University of Alberta, 2002
Publisher
Ottawa : National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, [2003]
Description
2 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
This study employed qualitative research methodologies to examine meanings of the mentoring relationship between junior (mentoree) and senior (mentor) academics in higher education. In particular, it has focused on gathering the perspectives of both mentors and mentorees regarding their mentoring relationship experiences. Semistructured, individual interviews were completed with the mentors and mentorees. The interview data were organized into four categories as follows: (a) mentoring environment; (b) initiating and preparing mentoring relationships; (c) expanding, developing, and ending mentoring relationships; and (d) reflecting on mentoring. The findings reveal that junior and senior academics appreciated the mentoring relationship, citing tangible and intangible benefits from participating in the relationship; recognized influential aspects stemming from the department or institution in general that impacted the development of the relationship; described their role in the relationship and how their characteristics and personalities influenced the relationship; and described and/or proposed challenges for the mentoring relationship. The study has made recommendations for action. These included developing a new model for representing mentoring relationships in academia, and, second, for more planned mentoring programs to be initiated in higher education as a professional development activity that supports the socialization process of new/junior academics, but also senior academics. The new model adds new terminology and presents a co-learning relationship with colleagues as partners within circles of colleagues. The conceptualization of the co-learning relationship model was derived from the belief that to build these mutually supportive and learning relationships within academia in this new decade, time-worn notions and perceptions of mentoring need to be reconceptualized and reconfigured. The proposed relationship model is based on the combination of findings from this study and learning from models and concepts described in the literature. The colleagues in the new, co-learning model are situated as co-learners and co-knowers of knowledge who share learning experiences that are planned to the needs identified by the individual colleagues and/or through their circle of colleagues.
ISBN
061268556X
9780612685567