From dyad to network: the evolution of a mentoring relationship

ABSTRACT

In this narrative account, the authors share how a mentoring relationship between a doctoral student and educational leadership professor experienced the mentoring stage of redefinition when the student transitioned into a faculty position. The authors describe an ever-changing experience as the partnership has evolved, with mentoring activities diminishing and the relationship solidifying into a research partnership and friendship. Drawing upon shared commitments to mentoring and high-quality education, the authors have been intentional in expanding the dyad into a network, including their doctoral students in collaborative research activities. Students have experienced benefits (as they have informally reported, and as evidenced by their academic records); the two faculty members, at different institutions and with differing research expertise and experiential backgrounds, could provide differentiated feedback and perspectives to these students. The network has also provided benefits for the mentors, who experienced increased productivity, new research insights, and deeper understandings of quality mentoring relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative mentoring
• collaboration
• informal learning environments
• mentoring network; student-faculty mentoring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Donald G. Hackmann

Donald G. Hackmann is the Frances S. and Arthur L. Wallace Professor and Director of the School of Education at Iowa State University. His research focuses on school leaders’ practices in support of college and career readiness, including career pathways, career academies, cross-sector collaboration, equity and data use, distributed leadership, and school improvement. A second research interest involves leadership preparation program quality and staffing, including characteristics of faculty, and mentoring of graduate students and novice faculty.

Joel R. Malin

Joel R. Malin is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at Miami University-Oxford, Ohio. Malin’s research focuses on research-practice-policy connections, and upon the leadership and organization of complex, cross-sector collaborations. His research in the latter area has primarily addressed college and career readiness reforms, occurring at the intersection of secondary and higher education. In the former area, his bookThe Role of Knowledge Brokers in Education (edited with Chris Brown), was published by Routledge in 2019.