Editorial overview: mentoring across disciplines

This issue of Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning Journal includes research from scholars representing Pennsylvania and New York in the United States, Sweden, and Kenya and Japan. The authors represented herein present findings confirming various constructs of mentoring within and across disciplines. While mentoring is typically used to support career functions, there exists a more divergent approach inherent to the interrelation of social factors contributing to individual thought and behaviors. Specifically, feedback loops, the extension of opportunity, interconnectivity, and role modeling are manifest variables intertwined in effective mentoring cycles, regardless of field of study (Templeton et al., 2021, 2022).

Essential to the building of individual capacity, mentors must first establish measures of clarity. This process requires a willingness to be flexible in the understanding of perspective. Far too often, mentoring within the field or career begins with the end in mind and an attempt to counsel toward the desired outcome. While not completely off point, perhaps a better approach is to use the initial gathering as an unstructured opportunity to collectively share independent and innovative thought. The latter is key to the second construct, effective communication.

How we choose to relate to each other is of paramount importance. As both mentor and mentee advocate for the deeper development of the individual, the value of making strong oral and written connections cannot be underscored (Irby, 2018; Templeton et al., 2021). Just as growing and evolving in small steps is contextually germane to a change in practice, so is the manner in which we agree to communicate (Templeton et al., 2023). The most effective mentors will speak truth to the relationship, but carefully choose an approach and delivery that reinforces self-efficacy.

Finally, mentors and mentees must achieve comparable levels of commitment. Whether formal or informal in nature, time is a variable that must be intentionally managed. The carving out of opportunity is more than extending the obligatory olive branch. By contrast, opportunity should encourage curiosity and the assumption of qualified risk. Be willing to rethink approaches to professional practice by investing wisely in the circles of change and improvement. Let’s begin to articulate mentoring as a discursive exercise and one where we intentionally engage each other as opportunities to learn (Templeton et al., 2022, 2023).

As you read the articles in this issue, and more importantly as you continue to write for publication in this journal, make mentoring the center of the research. So often, manuscripts submitted are indirectly related or the content somehow implies a connection to mentoring and/or tutoring. To secure the best possible option for publication, present findings that speak directly to successful constructs of improving practice through learning and experimentation inherent to mentoring or peer tutoring. I hope you enjoy this issue as much as I, and I wish you well as you seek to continue to develop personally and professionally.

In the opening manuscript in this issue, I See You in Me: Measuring Mentee-Mentor Identification in Peer-Mentoring Relationships, Bates, Cartwright, and Young presented findings from a longitudinal study of formal mentoring between cadet squad leaders (n = 96) and squad members (n = 968). Factor analyses revealed antecedent patterns critical to the development of mentoring intersectionality, including empathy, similarity, and self-image. Implications for practice extend beyond military academies to all disciplines seeking to extend professional practice through mentoring relationships.

The second article, Mentor Teachers’ Descriptions of Preferred Actions Related to Scenarios Describing Emotionally Challenging Episodes in Work-Based Learning, Lindquist et al. used a constructivist grounded theory approach to study mentor teachers’ perceptions on student teachers’ reports of emotional challenges. Designed within the framework of educational strategies as experiential applications, the findings from the study support using challenges as learning opportunities by emphasizing problem-focused coping techniques. The findings also confirm the necessity for diversified and multifaceted pedagogical instruction in field training and capstone experiences.

Wekullo et al., in the third article, Mentorship for Capacity Building among Young Scholars in Knowledge Translation, Research and Practice in Universities in Kenya, utilized a population of 258 respondents and contingent analysis to explore mentorship as a method of capacity building for young scholars. Findings reported the need for frequent communication, similarity in research interest, and institutional supports as necessary for honed mentoring skills. The findings of the study present significant implications for practice, including filling a torpid gap in the literature regarding the impact of mentoring on young scholars.

In the fourth article, Kearns-Sixsmith used a mixed-methods grounded theory (MM-GT) approach to better explore the hallmarks of one-on-one high-quality online tutoring. The author postulated the manner in which tutoring promotes student achievement, academic independence and the reduction of anxiety. However, the author used this study, The Hallmarks of High-Quality Online Tutoring: A Higher Ed MM-GT Study, to address methods to elevate tutoring. Using exploratory-confirmatory factor analyses, engagement and iterative clarifications, paced interactions, and the use of multiple modalities emerged as major themes. Implications for practice are evident for diverse disciplines in higher education.

In the final article in this issue, Effects of E-Mentoring in Japanese Clerical Employees’ Vocational Identity during Teleworking, Kodama used survey methodology to measure vocational identity and mentoring function. Data were collected from 419 clerical workers (211 teleworkers and 208 non-teleworkers) who had a mentor or protégé and analyzed using multiple-group structural equation modeling. Findings support the need for mentors to provide varying levels of support to protégés, including psychosocial and career functions, with vocational identity more essential for teleworkers, who are more isolated than non-teleworkers.

Publishing in mentoring and tutoring

Authors are reminded as they submit their work to the journal to ensure that all manuscripts follow the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual (7th edition) format. We receive quite a number with APA formatting errors. In Volume 20, Issue 1, we outlined several common concerns with submissions. When writing your manuscript, please remember to check your headings, spacing, table formats, and references for correct 7th edition usage. Because the journal is very popular and competitive, and we are receiving on average three to five manuscripts every week. Please prepare works that are extremely attentive to detail (e.g. current and relevant citations, high-quality writing, careful proofreading, proper formatting style) and that are making specific contributions to the field of mentoring and tutoring. For further information, consult the Taylor & Francis posting of the M&T author guidelines for article manuscripts and book reviews: http://www.tandf.couk/journals/authors/cmetauth.asp) (ISSN 1361–1267).

We do not conduct pre-reviews; rather, we will be mentoring authors in the publication process within the FastTrack system review process. That said, the Editor reserves the right to conduct desk rejections at the outset if manuscripts do not follow the prescribed guidelines. Please go to the Manuscript FastTrack system to register as a user and then upload your manuscript and any additional information through the system. The FastTrack system helps with the ease of communication between authors, reviewers, and the editor and resolves issues of overloaded email inboxes.

The current requirements for M&T are that the paper, not including references and abstract, should be a maximum of 30 pages, including references, tables, and figures. Depending on the manuscript, we may consider manuscripts that are longer than 30 pages, and certainly, we will accept manuscripts shorter than the prescribed 30 pages. If you have any questions about how to submit your manuscript to M&T, please go to International Council of Professors of Educational Administration (ICPEL) Publications at http://www.icpel.org. Click on M&T from the Menu of Buttons on the top of that screen. The submission link appears there on the M&T home page. You may, of course, access the journal page from the Taylor & Francis Publisher page at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13611267.asp.

Qualified individuals who serve on the Review Board, along with select Editorial Board members, provide commentaries. We would also like for you to register in the same location as you submit to be considered to be a member of the M&T Journal Review Board. We will be acknowledging the Review Board at the end of the year and a top reviewer will be honored. The acceptance rate of the journal is currently 10%. Mentoring & Tutoring is abstracted in Academic Search; Australian Education Index (AEI); Australian Research Council (ARC) Ranked Journal List; Cabells; National Database for Research into International Education (NDRI); British Education Index; Contents Pages in Education; Educational Research Abstracts online (ERA); EBSCOhost EJS; Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI); Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); PsycINFO and SCOPUS®, and Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Curriculum and Methods. Additionally, Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning is now included in the Thomson Reuters Emerging Sources Citation Index.

Many authors have been turning to the M&T journal as the venue-of-choice for publishing high-quality works for over 20 years. M&T is the longest-running mentoring journal in the field. This refereed, peer-reviewed journal is known worldwide. Authors, readers, and subscribers are from different countries and various types of institutions and professional environments. The editorial team is committed to producing timely, thorough reviews, modeling conscientious guidance and support, and being open to a wide scope of topics and methods related to mentoring and tutoring, collaboration, and learning.

Books to be reviewed must be about mentoring and tutoring. Visit this journal’s website, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/13611267.html, for more information about M&T, as well as special rates and discounts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).