Mentoring in literacy education: a commentary from graduate students, untenured professors, and tenured professors

Abstract

This commentary continues a dialogue which began among literacy teacher educators attending an alternative format session about mentoring in the academy at a national conference. Literacy teacher educators participated in an informal discussion centered on the nature of mentoring in the academy for doctoral students, untenured professors, and tenured professors. Doctoral students focused on their changing identities and roles in the academy, their concerns about navigating the political infrastructure of academia, and the importance of assuming a proactive stance towards obtaining mentoring, especially for part-time doctoral students. Untenured professors focused on the ways they were inventing and reinventing themselves within the power and politics of academia and their need for more holistic mentoring during these turbulent times. Tenured professors were able to embed mentoring experiences into their scholarly work and find ways to benefit or learn from mentoring experiences. These mentors also found comfort in more informal mentoring that included self-initiated endeavors centered on mutual interests. Our commentary draws on these discussions as well as the professional literature on mentoring to describe the importance of mutual trust and reciprocity in mentoring throughout all stages of academia with attention to cultural and linguistic diversity.

Caring Mentoring for Academic Literacy: A Case Study of a Teacher Education College in Israel

“…Researchers underscore that caring teaching is linked to students' improved scholastic achievements and academic self efficacy (Ayalon, 2007;Cobb et al, 2006;Daloz, 1999;Goldstein & Lake, 2003;Wolffensperger, 2007).…”

Situational leadership applied to the dissertation process

“…Bell (2000) defines a mentor as ''someone who helps someone else learn something that he or she would have learned less well, more slowly, or not at all if left alone.' ' Cobb et al (2006) provide an academic definition of mentors as individuals who ''provide guidance, support, and feedback to facilitate personal and career development to help novices learn about the culture of the academy and to expand opportunities for those traditionally hampered by social and institutional barriers.'' A number of studies provide information concerning the importance of the mentoring process for students completing the dissertation process.…”

Collaboration, Mentoring and Co-Teaching in Teacher Education

“…In institutions where advancement is based primarily on the number of publications that one garners per year, much time is needed for conducting research and preparing manuscripts while time spent on other endeavours is not accorded the same status in annual faculty evaluations. This implicit statement of institutional priorities begs the question of how we can build up our workplaces and live up to our institution's mission if we rarely engage in collaborative activities and fail to mentor less-experienced colleagues and faculty at all stages of their professional development (Cobb et al, 2006a). The tensions of needing isolated and focused time to engage in the type of scholarly writing required for tenure and promotion creates significant disquietude in faculty who simultaneously value collaboration and recognise the significant investment of time required for true collaboration.…”

“…Smith, Basmadjian, Kirell and Koziol (2003) contend that just as pre-service and inservice teachers need mentoring, doctoral students need training to become teacher educators because the "lack of attention to the development of… doctoral students for their roles as teacher educators is particularly problematic when we recognise the substantial role these students play in teacher preparation" (p. 9). The varying degrees, types and contexts of mentoring new and experienced professors is an important aspect of our work in teacher education (Mullen & Kealy, 2000;Cobb, et al, 2006a;2006b) and this important work must be recognised by those who are in positions of authority within the academy. Even though simple definitions of mentoring are elusive, attention needs to be given to the mentoring of future teacher education professors.…”

“…Faculties that work to cultivate a collaborative spirit and to mentor each other are more likely to be successful in promoting student learning and job satisfaction (Cobb, Fox, Many, Mathews, McGrail, Taylor, Sachs, Wallace, & Wang, 2006a;Cobb, Fox, Many, Mathews, McGrail, Taylor, Sachs, Wallace, & Wang, 2006b). This case study chronicles our ventures co-teaching teacher education courses in an institution of higher education.…”