What matters to mentees: centering their voices

ABSTRACT

While the literature on mentoring in academe is vast, mentees’ accounts of effective mentorship are relatively rare. The purpose of this essay is to add a close-up analysis of what matters to mentees in academic mentoring relationships. This essay presents our analyses of 62 letters describing the first author’s mentorship, as well as both authors’ mentorship experiences, to highlight forms of support mentees value. The letters, nominations of the first author for four mentoring awards, represent the views of a diverse group of graduate student and faculty mentees as well as faculty colleagues. Drawing on document analysis methods, this essay identifies aspects of mentorship pertaining to: (1) advancing scholarship, (2) navigating institutional contexts, and (3) humanizing mentoring relationships. These themes corroborate prior research on salient dimensions of mentorship and highlight the importance of centering mentees’ perspectives, particularly as academic institutions and related professional organizations develop novel mentoring programs and structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Graduate student-faculty mentoring
• mentee perspectives
• mentoring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Betty Malen

Betty Malen is a Professor of Education Policy and Distinguished Scholar Teacher at the University of Maryland, College Park. A former school administrator, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Her research addresses the micro-politics of schools and the political determinants and substantive effects of prominent education reforms such as decentralized decision-making, school reconstitution, weighted-student funding, pay-for-performance programs and high stakes accountability policies. Grounded in political science, her research relies heavily on case study designs and qualitative research methods. Betty has earned awards for hers cholarship, teaching, mentoring and service to professional associations and local school districts.

Tara M. Brown

Tara M. Brown is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a doctorate degree in education from Harvard University. Tara is a former classroom teacher in secondary alternative education. Her research focuses on the experiences of low-income adolescents and young adults attending and formerly served by urban public schools, particularly as related to disciplinary exclusion and high school non-completion and their consequences. Tara specializes in qualitative, community-based, participatory, and action research methodologies. She has earned awards for her exceptional teaching and mentoring and for her significant contributions to education research on the social context of education.