Relational Mentorship in Higher Education: A Coaching Guide for Student and Faculty Success

By Sylvanus N. Wosu Ph.D.

Relational Mentorship in Higher Education: A Mentoring Coaching Guide for Student and Faculty Success, explores various models for mentorship as developed for undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. By framing mentorship as personal service, followership, and leadership processes integrated by mutual trust and relational connection, this book presents a unique perceptive of a mentoring process that puts emphasis on goal-oriented relationships and mutual trust that help both mentor and mentee. Mentorship and menteeship strategies for all parties involved—faculty mentors, student mentees, and universities—in a manner that not only gives guidance to everyone involved are discussed with a view into the mind of the other parties. Relational Mentorship in Higher Education is a must-resource book to learn how to develop and be engaged in a personal growth plan, develop more mentorship and menteeship skills,  and for professional career growth, especially in cross-gender and -racial settings.

In this second edition, and in response to the several disruptions experienced in higher education in recent times, including the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, national racial climate, weather disruption, changes in traditional teaching and learning, strategies of dealing with changes and disruptions outside students’ control in what has been described the "new normal " is discussed in addition to how faculty or leaders empower students to success under those situations. Strategies for dealing with mentees’ perceived failures and mental health during a disruption are also addressed.  Flexibility and adoption strategies in disruptions, dealing with negative social climate, and habits for decisive actions on a purpose for success are covered.  This edition also includes discussions on important strategies such as students can learn and bounce back from mistakes or perceived failures, understanding the 3WH Model: What, Why, Where, and How in mistakes, and understanding how to measure progress in academic goals

• Language: English
• Publisher: Proisle Publishing Services
• Release date: Aug 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781961526280

Book preview

DEDICATION

To all my students, for helping me develop effective acts of mentorship, without which this project would only have been just a dream.

FOREWORD

Mentorship process in a broader perspective involves guidance, coaching, and instructions provided by a mentor through his experience and acquired skills. It is a process of taking the individual to the clear path and guiding them through their growth as a support to their personal, professional, and intellectual developments.

Relational Mentorship in Higher Education was developed by Dr. Sylvanus N. Wosu as a mentoring and coaching guide for students and faculty and offers a comprehensive examination of mentorship programs in higher education, exploring various models for mentorship as developed for undergraduate students, graduate students, and even faculty. Dr. Wosu aims were to share his expertise and knowledge in mentoring students in college and even faculty, he practiced in his profession for almost three decades already.

As a functional guide, the book discusses the inner core of mentoring and followership. One of the substantial parts of the book is the characteristics and qualities explored that impact mentorship, such as, trust, communication, empowerment, encouragement, respect, confidence, integrity, responsibility, and problem-solving. In this modern time, practicing what we have learned in theory usually improves skills to drive better actions. Skills can be acquired and developed but without guidance and mentorship to practice it can be useless.

One factor addressed in the mentorship process is responding to changing times and situations in a mentee’s growth path. Changes are constant and inevitable, the least a person can do is to be flexible. In handling changes, Dr. Wosu discussed in great details the resiliency strategies for dealing with disruptions and positive habits for decisive actions on staying focus in changing times, including resiliency strategies for dealing with challenges or perceived failures resulting from disruptions. Dr. Wosu introduced what he called, the 3WH model of learning from failure —the What, Why, Where, and How in mistakes, and understanding how to measure progress in academic goals.

Relational Mentorship in Higher Education framed mentorship as personal service, followership, and leadership processes integrated by mutual trust and relational connection. Dr. Wosu introduces a Relational Mentorship Model (RMM) that consists of five relational connecting dimensions (Mentor, Mentee, Organization, Community, and Functional Relationship) and describes in details how a mentor-mentee engagement serves as the primary input in the first four dimensions of the model, leading to Functional Relationship as the output of that engagement, that drives the success and growth of the mentee as the desired outcome In this context this book presents a unique perceptive of a mentoring process that emphasizes goal-oriented relationships and mutual trust that help both mentor and mentee.

As a professor and mentor of several students and faculty for over 32 years as service to multiple higher education institutions, Dr. Wosu offers his expert advice and personal lived-experience on this subject matter. Over the years, he developed several books on transformational leadership concepts. He is highly devoted to mentorship leadership discipleship, and global diversity.

This resource book will guide mentors and mentees on how to engage in personal growth, develop mentorship skills, and serve as a guide for professional career growth considering the gender and racial setting of the organization where they belong. It is must resources for any organization or faculty that seeks to develop a formal mentorship program.

-Proislepublishing Editors, 2023

PREFACE

This book is based on my personal experiences in mentoring students for over thirty-five years and the works of several researchers on the subject of mentoring. It describes the lessons learned as a mentor or mentee and about how to establish and maintain meaningful mentor-mentee empowering functional relationships. The impact of those mentoring relationships on my students and colleagues became a source of inspiration for me to want to share those experiences in this guide as a learning tool to develop others who are aspiring to be effective mentors and mentees, or organizations that will want to develop a mentoring program.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Relational Mentorship in Higher Education offers a comprehensive examination of mentorship programs in higher education, exploring various models for mentorship as developed for undergraduate students, graduate students, and even faculty. By laying out the various benefits and considerations of such programs, the text provides an extensive foundation for members of higher education who would want to implement mentorship opportunities and works to make mentorship an attainable and positive goal within their communities and organizations.

In framing relational mentorship in a way that focuses on personal service and leadership, this guide presents a unique perceptive of mentoring that puts emphasis on goal-oriented relationships, communications, and mutual trust that benefit both faculty and students, along with their organizations. With this dual focus, the guide gives attention to strategies for all parties involved—faculty mentors, student mentees, and educational entities —in a manner that not only gives guidance to each party involved but also allows each party a view into the mind of the other parties. Empathizing with the other parties is presented as an important part of building an authentic relationship for an effective mentoring process, and the fact that this text explicitly explores those varying viewpoints is an important strength in each chapter.

Moving beyond followership and understanding of how mentoring relationships benefit all parties involved and might be best framed for varying needs and situations, the text also works to explore how these relationships not only provide for success within higher education but actually empower participants for further success and growth on both professional and personal levels—inside and outside of higher education. Viewing followership as a driver of functional mentorship relationships that reproduces high achievement in mentees, the guide examines these dynamics in a way that appreciates diversity in the mentorship process. This discussion extends itself to a look at what allows for both students and faculty to succeed within their organizations—not as separate groups, but as a body of individuals committed to growth, mutual respect, diversity, knowledge, and higher education, as well as to one another. An extensive discussion of research evidence on the challenges the majority of faculty face in mentoring underrepresented students and suggestions on how to address the identified barriers make this guide a must for any faculty that wants to broaden his or her mentoring experience. As a result, the guide works not just to appreciate various viewpoints that might otherwise be seen as contradictory or working towards different goals, but to see the common ground among those viewpoints and draw it out as an element of the mentorship process which allows for the greater success and satisfaction of all parties involved.

Among the characteristics and qualities explored that impact mentorship relationships and all those involved, the guide especially focuses on trust, communication, empowerment, encouragement, respect, confidence, responsibility, and problem-solving. With its multi-faceted approach, though, even this territory that could by some counts seem familiar to readers is given a fresh examination that allows readers to understand how these elements impact their personal and professional goals. Within the framework of mentorship and working toward professional success, the elements are then understood at a deeper level specifically because of the guide’s commitment to understanding personal and professional personas or identities as being intimately connected for both mentors and mentees.

About the Second Edition

The second edition is an expanded version of the original text. Three new chapters have been added in response to the several disruptions experienced in higher education in recent times, including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, national racial climate, weather disruption, changes in traditional teaching and learning, etc. In addition, a new Part VI, having three new chapters on empowerment leadership is presented with reference to power sharing and other key elements of empowerment leadership, as mechanism for individual mentorship, system transformation for excellence, and the sustainability of culture of excellences. The key questions explored in Part VI include: What are the roles of empowerment leadership in the self-transformation of change agents (student leaders, faculty, mentor-leaders, staff, administrators) to maximize their effectiveness in leading social or system change? How can each unit of a system increase its capacity to intentionally share power to provide support for the success of faculty and graduate students? What does sharing power and authority mean to a leader with respect to leading social or system change? How do we frame organizational culture, excellence, and culture of excellence in higher education? Answers to these and other questions are explored in this chapter. How are the acts of encouragement (chapter 14) and enablement (chapter 15) drivers of empowerment leadership in higher education? How mentors can help students deal with changes and disruptions outside their control or what has been described as the new normal ? How can faculty or leaders empower students to succeed under those situations through empathetic compassion and other techniques are discussed in detail, including strategies for dealing with mentees’ perceived failures and mental health during disruption. Flexibility and adoption strategies in disruptions, managing disruptions are given proper attention. This edition also includes discussions on important strategies such as students can learn and bounce back from a mistake or perceived failures, understanding the 3WH model of learning from mistakes, and understanding how to measure progress in academic goals are given full attention.

Organization of the Book

This book is presented as a resource guide, divided into 16 chapters organized into seven parts. Each chapter is self-contained and can be read or referenced separately.

Part I (Chapter 1) presents the contextual framework for mentorship and the theme that runs throughout the book. The process of formal mentoring is introduced as Relational Mentorship: a relational followership process of connecting someone who is more experienced in a given area with a less experienced person. The state of knowledge of mentorship and its rationale are presented with an extensive body of research evidence. The chapter gives details of the four dimensions of the mentorship model: mentee, mentor, relational partnership, and empowering organization. Part I concludes with strategies for how personalized followership can be cultivated.

Part II (consisting of Chapters 2-4) describes the empowering drivers for the mentorship process—Relational Connections, Relational Personal Leadership, Relational Encouragement, Growth Enablement, and Relational Communications. Strategies for developing each of these drivers are fully developed.

Part III (Chapters 5-8) describes the applications of Parts I and II to mentorship in higher education. Beginning with a detailed discussion on how to develop the Academic Mentoring Program in Chapter 7, covering several aspects of undergraduate and graduate mentoring processes and their differences. Part III is the climax of the text, presenting a detailed framework for developing a mentorship process with Transitional Mentoring for preparing undergraduate students to graduate education in Chapters 5-6 Graduate Academic Mentoring (Chapter 7) with a detailed discussion on mentoring underrepresented minority graduate students and associated issues and challenges for majority faculty in a mentorship relationship, and framework for developing Individual Development Plan.. Part III ends with a discussion on developing persistence skills and a sense of motivation for success in graduate programs in Chapter 8.

Part IV (New Chapters 9-10)-Managing Disruptions for Student Success. Chapter 9 presents discussions on Mentor’s Empathy and Compassion and Barriers to Compassion dealing with perceived failures and associated strategies to be successful even in hard times. Part IV concludes with a discussion on strategies for dealing with perceived failures and measures of academic progress

Part V (Chapter 11-12) presents highlights for Faculty Professional Development in different aspects of faculty mentoring, with some institutional models for faculty mentoring briefly highlighted.

Part VI (New Chapters 13-15) is a continuation of Part IV on faculty leadership development and presents empowerment leadership as tools for faculty with reference to power sharing (chapter 13) and other key elements of empowerment leadership, as mechanism for individual mentorship, system transformation for excellence, and the sustainability of culture of excellences, with the acts of encouragement (chapter 14) and enablement (chapter 15) presented as be drivers of empowerment leadership in higher education?

Part VII (Chapter 16) is presented as a resource for further development of mentorship, with extensive books and resources for further reading and references.

As a whole, the guide lends itself to supporting mentorship as an integral and worthwhile goal within any organization or institution of higher learning. Through careful examination of priorities, relationships, and literature, it works toward making mentorship something that any reader or participant can appreciate and understand, allowing for careful identification of what makes mentorship so powerful and so effective when implemented carefully and with real concern for the individuals involved.

For clarity and ease of reading, the pronoun ‘he’ refers to both male and female genders. The intended audiences are potential followers, mentors, mentees, and organizations wanting to develop mentoring programs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I had the privilege of mentoring a great number of students, from pre-college to college to graduate school, and faculty, in my almost three decades as an educator. The impact of those mentoring relationships on my mentees became a source of inspiration and a calling for me. For that I am very grateful, especially to the following:

To my former students, Dr. Kim Lewis, Dr. Hassan Moore, Dr. Rose-Anne Blenman, and Dr. Qiaoyun Xie, who have gone their ways and are doing great things for other students; to Sossena Wood, Brandon Jennings, Bradley Campbell, Chris Mahoney, Marcus Allen, Harold Rickenbacker, Deanna Easley, and many current students like them, who are still in transition to their doctorate degrees as I write this, for giving me the opportunities to share and extend myself to them, I express my appreciations and thanks to all of them;

To Dr. James Prestage, who as the Dean of Natural Sciences at Dillard University, offered to serve as my mentor to guide my growth in leadership as a young faculty member in my early leadership career as a department chair. Dr. Prestage, in so many measures, exemplified practical examples of what it means to be an effective mentor; Dr. Helmut Fischbeck, my research advisor prepared me for a challenge and environmental impediment he knew I was going to confront as a graduate student. I respected and appreciated his foresight, his uncompromising high standard, and his guidance that helped me transition successfully for success;

To my colleagues, who I consider good examples of what mentors should be: Dr. Harvey Borovetz, Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering; Dr. Anne Robertson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, who as the director of the Center of Faculty Excellence, dedicated part of her professional career to mentoring junior faculty; Dr. Steve Abramowitch, Professor of Bioengineering; Dr. Steve Jacobs, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and many others like them, who exemplified mentorship leadership in a higher education setting, I say thank you;

To my graduate student, Abenezer Alemu, and post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Qiaoyun Xie, for their support in the background literature research for this project. And to my publishing editor, Jennifer Collins, and assistant Kate Shaw, for their excellent suggestions that have improved the delivery of the message, and for staying focused on the important subject matter, I say, thank you;

Completion of this project at this time was inspired and supported by funding from the National Science Foundation Alliances for the Graduate Education and Professoriate (AGEP) and S-STEM programs; the need under these programs to implement evidence-based mentoring strategies to enhance the success of under-represented minority students made this project a worthwhile effort.

PART I: CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR MENTORSHIP

CHAPTER 1: FRAMING RELATIONAL MENTORSHIP

Mentoring is an act of guiding someone to achieve success through a relational connection with a more experienced person. In academic settings, mentoring is a collaborative process of academically challenging, encou-raging, and guiding a mentee (a student or junior faculty member) to excel in the desired goal through a relationship with a mentor. The mentoring model stems from the belief that a successful mentoring partnership is a voluntary, developmental, sharing, empowering, and encouraging relationship. Effective academic mentoring focuses on inspiring students to be successful in a competitive culture of high expectations, such as preparation for and success in a Ph.D. program or mentoring a junior faculty member toward making tenure. The primary strategy is to identify mentees with dreams of succeeding and perseverance to pursue those dreams, and to match these students with mentors, who will believe in them and guide them as they shape those dreams into reality.

Understanding Mentoring

In graduate education, there is a rising concern in the U.S. that most graduate students are failing to successfully finish their doctoral studies (Nelson & Lovitts, 2001). The ten ways to retain graduate students, according to the findings of these researchers, include: 1) prepare undergraduates for the culture of graduate school; 2) provide balanced information about graduate programs and their requirements; 3) encourage candidates to visit the campus; 4) require prospective students to tailor their applications; 5) expect all students not working in a laboratory to teach; 6) pay a living wage to all research and teaching assistants; 7) monitor advising relationships; 8) offer continuing opportunities for professional growth; 9) create a hospitable departmental environment; and 10) conduct exit interviews with all students exiting the program. The authors suggested that all departments and especially those with high attrition rates, should open channels of communication with students to understand the issues from their perspectives. Mentoring was shown as the key to success for all those involved in graduate education (London, 1999), and should be undertaken by playing a key role in helping students address some of these issues and be successful in school. Students who are mentored benefit greatly from such gains as better training, greater career success, and stronger professional identities; it is strongly recommended that students find a mentor and maintain the mentor-mentee relationship throughout graduate school (Johnson et al., 2003).

According to Jacobi (1991), matching students with a role model based on of cross-race and cross-gender factors be successful in achieving academic success. The most common theoretical analyses on the impact of mentoring on students’ academic success include cultural capital, shared learning social capital and social networking, social integration, social supports, and student approaches to learning. Even though Jacobi suggests the list of theoretical analyses, she has not identified which theory could lead to effective mentoring for higher education. Tinto’s (1990, 1995) social integration theory suggested that students who are integrated into a campus environment both within and outside of the classroom are more apt to persist and not depart from a university without graduating. Though Tinto’s study did not identify a methodology to test his theory, Gershenfeld (2014) identified participant perception as an element of social validity to analyze the success of a mentoring program. He emphasized that studying the perception of mentors and mentees is critical to explicitly measuring academic success.

Mentoring can be shown to contribute to the capacity for working, loving, and learning (Merriam, 1983). Studies by the Consortium for Graduate Engineering Education (GEM) program showed that for minority students, 1) good mentoring is a key variable for determining success or failure in completing a doctoral program; (2) selecting a mentor is critical in that the one chosen must have the time and interest to accept the student as a protégé; and (3) the mentor, in order to have a successful mentor/protégé relationship, needs to become familiar with the protégé beyond the superficial level (Adams, 1992). Interestingly enough, an earlier study by Friedman (1987) found that foreign students tend to see their advisors as mentors and role models who work on improving their skills and talents. However, American students see dedicated professors as good supervisors who care about the job they are doing. Hence, foreign students are more likely to see mentors impacting their lives than American students.

One of the most successful mentoring programs in the country is the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Meyerhof Scholars Program. The program’s thirteen key components, including, mentors and mentoring, faculty involvement, administrative involvement, and public support family involvement, focus on providing structured academic support guides to highly talented students aspiring for doctoral degrees to become research scientists and engineers. Meyerhof Scholars gain discipline-specific knowledge by participating in research with faculty mentors, conferences, and internships. The program has been shown to have a positive impact on the number of minority students succeeding in STEM fields; students were 5.3 times more likely to have graduated from or be currently attending a STEM Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. program than those students who were invited to join the program but declined and attended another university. (UMBC, 2015).

Selke and Wong (1993) provided a developmental framework for graduate student advisement that addresses the psychosocial and developmental needs of graduate students. The model is based upon (a) existing concepts of graduate student advisement; (b) a formalized knowledge base on educational mentoring; and (c) Erikson's eight stages of human development (Erikson, 1997): hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom. The Mentoring-Empowered Model provides an opportunity for advisors to fulfill role functions in a context that preserves the autonomy, choice, and significant personal involvement in learning that is crucial to the development of graduate students.

All effective mentoring associations must be within the limits of a healthy mentoring relationship, which researchers define as functional mentoring (Thomas et al., 2007). According to these researchers, the benefits of functional mentoring to mentees include guidance, support, an enhanced network, and feedback. The benefits from the guidance provided by mentors include academic guidance, career development, personal guidance, and overall aid in the socialization of the graduate student. Benefits from the enhanced access to a professional network offered by the mentor include the exposing mentor to the profession, and providing opportunities to develop meaningful relationships in the respective profession. Mentor feedback can benefit mentees by helping them survive graduate school, and promoting their professional and career development of the mentee. Tangible (assistance with projects, increased power, networking as mentee advances) and personal rewards (altruism, validation, pleasure in mentee achievements, and sense of competence) have been reported by faculty mentors as benefits from functional mentoring (Newby & Heide, 1992). In designing academic support for STEM programs, educators continue to seek out best practices and models for effective mentoring that will benefit both mentor and mentee. To that end, several perspectives and definitions of mentorship have emerged in the literature.

Developing a Mentoring Program

A good mentoring program is defined by the presence of good and willing mentors, and by the quality and organization of the mentoring program activities. Training for formal mentoring provides specific examples of the roles and responsibilities expected of a mentor (and mentee) and equips mentors with appropriate skills to implement the proposed activities involving the mentee and mentor.

Several factors to consider in developing a mentoring program include institutional support (Piecy, 2005); sustained support for mentoring (Kram, 1983); self-regulation (Zimmerman, 1989; Schunk and Mullen, 2013); a decision of whether it should be formal or informal (Shealey et al., 2014; Stanley & Lincoln, 2005); the role of mentors (Harries, 1995); and mentor training

(Lyons, 2012). Harris (1995) listed the following criteria for selecting mentors:

expertise and competence, the teacher’s willingness to be a mentor and put forth the extra commitment, self-confidence, and the ability to model integrity and empathetic relationships between the mentor and mentee.

Mentorship: A Relational Followership

The contextual review above casts a non-exhaustive glimpse into our understanding of mentoring. But how does formal mentoring work in practice? Relational Mentorship can be broadly defined as a followership process involving the connection and mutual trust between an experienced someone (mentor) influencing and guiding appropriate success attitudes, and the personal and professional growth of the less experienced someone (mentee). Relational mentorship influences desired success attitudes in a mentee by nurturing interpersonal relationships, communication, and mutual trust that intellectually inspire the mentee to develop and follow his or her sought-after growth plan.

Operational Definitions of Mentorship

Although most studies agree that mentoring is a key element for academic success, a majority of studies have found it ambiguous to suggest a single specified definition for mentoring. Jacobi (1991) studied the definition of mentoring from higher education, management/ organizational behavior, and from a psychological perspective.

Table 1.1 Operational definition of mentorship.

In general, all researchers agree that mentoring is generally a process involving relationships between individuals working together to develop the abilities of the less experienced individual, either in the context of academic achievement, career, and/or personal development. The literature offers several definitions for mentoring. Five categories of these definitions are illustrated in Table 1.1 and summarized below.

Business Model. The traditional business model of mentoring is that of a mentor-mentee relationship structured as coach–mentor, and then career sponsor, in which the mentor is defined as someone who oversees the career and development of another person, usually a ‘junior,’ through teaching, counseling, providing psychological support, protecting, and at times promoting or sponsoring, (Zey, 1991); having a mentor is an important factor in leadership development (O’Dell, 1990). According to Bryant-Shanklin & Brumage (2011), the above concept of mentoring was divided into eight different definitions:

A more advanced or experienced individual guiding a less experienced individual;

An older individual guiding a younger individual;

A faculty member guiding a student;

An individual providing academic advising;

An individual who shares (his/her) experiences with another individual;

An individual who actively interacts with another individual;

An experienced individual guiding a group of individuals; and

An experienced, an older individual guides a younger, less experienced individual by internet resources.

One-to-one learning relationship: In the context of higher education, mentoring was defined as a one-to-one learning relationship (Lister & Johnson, 1981). Three components of the mentoring relationship were emphasized: emotional and psychological support, direct assistance with career professional development, and role modeling (Jacobi, 1991). Other interrelated common dimensions (career-based or technical, psychosocial, or personal) and roles (sponsor, coach, role model, or counselor) with the diversity of functions and assumptions in describing mentoring relationships in the literature were illustrated by Zellers (2013).

Mentoring was defined by Santamaria (2003) as a one-to-one relationship in which an expert or a senior person voluntarily gives time to teach, support, and encourage another, including providing emotional support and guidance that is usually given by a mature individual (mentor). Some works cited in the earlier work by Zellers et al. (2008) referred to mentoring as a lifelong relationship in which a mentor helps a mentee reach his or her destined potential (Biehl, 1996) by way of sponsorship, coaching, and corporate culture instruction; an intrinsic or psychosocial function serving as a model, a confidant, and a friend (Cunningham, 1999); and a power-free partnership between two individuals who desire mutual growth, where one individual has greater skills, experiences, and wisdom (Weinstein, 1998). One-on-one mentoring in general functions as an act of an experienced person as a mentor providing guidance, support, feedback, information, and advocacy to a junior or less experienced mentee (or colleague or student (Rinehart et al., 2003). The relationships can be deep and caring, formal (structured by a program), or informal, with close and trusted colleagues (Torrance, 1984).

Relational Mentorship—Interpersonal process. Effective mentoring is achieved with relational leadership involving an interpersonal process through which the interactions of values, attitudes, behaviors, ideologies, and growth are nurtured, constructed, and practiced to connect and relate to one another in order to transform others. A positive interpersonal relationship is an inner driver that empowers the mentee’s motivation to be engaged because of his/her sense of trust that the mentor cares. When pulled together, this book argues that positive influence and interpersonal relationships start from the inside authentic willingness and relational connection of a mentor willing to serve a less experienced mentee.

Authentic Mentorship—voluntary, personal relationship process. For mentorship to be successful, it must also be authentic; it must be as natural and voluntary as possible, even in a formal setting. Authentic mentorship is described as a voluntary and ultimately the personal relationship between two individuals, in which one person in the relationship always is more experienced and senior in status to the second person (Davis, 2001), and where the mentor is the one who leads in the formation and maintenance of this very personal relationship—in mutuality with the protégé. The mentor must have a mutual understanding and must be able to share and partner together with the mentee for their growth. However, the growth plan must be implemented voluntarily and without debasing the mentee through a mentor’s sense of superiority. A study conducted by Ayar, MC & Yalvac (2016), concluded that authenticity, interdisciplinary, and mentoring are three essential concepts in designing sound STEM learning environment in school context because these three concepts serve as an impetus for evolving the traditional nature of school science.

Collaborative mentorship. A mentoring relationship is designed primarily for professional development when serviced-focused and less research-intensive universities shift their mission and purpose of teaching to a scholar-teacher model for research development (Bryant-Shanklin & Brumage, 2011). These researchers suggested that both faculty members and pre-service teacher candidates or practicing teachers can benefit from this process as they endeavor to collaboratively complete research, teaching, and service activities at service-focused and less research-intensive universities.

Mentors in any of the mentorship models above can in general provide both instrumental functions (such as career-related advocacy, assistance, feedback, and access to networks) and psychosocial functions (such as providing help and support) to support a mentee (Thomas et al., 2005).

Faculty advisor as a mentor model. Numerous institutions use the classic faculty-advisor model or undergraduate advisor model to build interpersonal processes, where a group of students in a department is assigned to a faculty (advisor) member, mainly for academic advising. Although some form of conversation about a student’s growth path can take place, this model is not included in Figure 1.1 as it does not fit our classical definition of mentoring in the Relational Mentorship model proposed. I will argue that a good advisor is not necessarily a good mentor in the absence of the relational partnership discussed in this guide, as will be shown in later chapters.

Description of Relational Mentorship Model

The Relational Mentorship model consists of five relational connecting dimensions (Mentor, Mentee, Organization, Community, and Functional Relationship). As shown in Figure 1.2, the primary input into this model is the engagement of the first four dimensions with the Functional Relationship as the output of that engagement, and the success and growth of the mentee as the desired outcome and measure of the effectiveness of the mentorship process. The elements of these dimensions are described below:

Mentee or protégé — an individual (student, junior faculty, or staff member) with less experience in comparison to a mentor with more experience, but who is open to engaging in a functional relationship with a mentor to further his or her career or personal growth. A mentee is a good follower or apprentice of an experienced leader in whom he believes and is committed to the mentor-mentee relationship based on mutual trust and connection.

Mentor — Typically, a mentor is an experienced person who provides guidance, facilitating the transition from one point of a life goal to another; a mentor serves as a role model, counsels the mentee on different topics of concern, and offers insights and perspectives on any topic of interest to the mentee. The mentor plays the role of supporting, pushing, and influencing the mentee to adopt the desired learning behaviors, strategic thinking, and the necessary experiences that will enable the mentee’s dream (ambition) to come true.

Characteristics of an effective mentor include:

Willing and committed to the growth and development of a mentee through guidance, feedback, and challenge for higher achievement.

Has discipline-specific knowledge and is willing to reproduce the same in a mentee.

Demonstrates effective empathetic verbal and nonverbal communication skills.

Fosters the mentee’s willingness and ability to follow a path of academic achievement.

Possesses emotional intelligence and self-regulated emotions to handle others’ emotions.

Sensitive to the emotions and feelings of the mentee they are mentoring.

Willing to intellectually stimulate students, even in challenging times.

Able to commit an appropriate amount of time to support the mentee’s growth.

Figure 1.2. Relational Mentorship model

Functional Relationship— the growth of the mentee is achieved through the collaborative partnership and relationship with the mentor, as illustrated in Figure 1.5. In the context of the Relational Mentorship model, Functional Relationship is a healthy mentee-mentor connection, association, or collaboration with a high degree of reciprocity that results in both the success and satisfaction of the mentor and mentee.

Reciprocity is a mentor-mentee give-and-take relationship in which the mentor extends respect, guidance, and support to a mentee and in turn, requires and expects some tangible benefit from the mentee’s response as a necessary outcome of the mentoring relationship. Mentoring relationship changes over time as the mentor and mentee grow, learn, gain experience, and develop mutual interests in the relationship. The mentor-mentee relationship which is shaped to promote advanced academic achievement, for example, can focus on three major areas: (1) Mentee Growth and Retention, (2) Professional Advancement, and (3) Transition to Professional Work or Graduate School. A mentorship relationship takes different forms and settings depending on the context in which it is set — formal or informal, higher education student-to-student, faculty-student, faculty-to-faculty, or among groups:

Faculty-to-faculty relationships occur between a junior tenure-track faculty member and a tenured senior faculty member in the form of a one-to-one relationship, or a junior faculty member with a group of faculty who are meeting together in a learning community to support each other or the junior faculty.

Faculty-to-student relationships are created with a focus on fostering a student’s growth opportunities or transition to career or graduate school. Other forms of faculty-student mentoring connections include course-based relationships, research internships, and the informal faculty discipleship of groups of students, often at the initiation of students desiring a mentoring relationship.

Peer mentoring (student to student) is undertaken with a group of upper-class students to provide peer mentoring to new students.

Group mentoring occurs in different forms, including peer-group mentoring, where a person is mentored by a group of peers through the sharing of best practices and perspectives.'

Community Connections—the separate communities in which the mentor and mentee belong, within and outside the organization, can have a direct influence on the mentee-mentor relationship by its influence on the relational trust. Association with a group of faculty mentors that share negative perceptions or lack of experience in mentoring a certain ethnic group, for example, can have an effect on how that faculty views mentoring of students from that group. Similarly, students from an ethnic background different from the mentor are more likely to be apprehensive at the initial stage of the relationship. Students often are more experienced in interacting with people that look like them. When it comes to faculty mentoring, especially cross-race faculty mentoring, a majority of administrators and senior faculty agree that mentoring is important and want to provide support, but are likely to be perplexed by the task because they may have no previous experience with minority colleagues to draw upon. (Stanley & Lincoln, 2005). The mentor and mentee must work to nurture their communities in ways that will not only promote the success of the mentee but also ensure trust and understanding in the relationship.

For the mentee, community connection means understanding, nurturing, and promoting a community 3 I’s:

Community Identity, which relates to creating a sense of place, having a clear sense of place, and promoting an individual’s sense of well-being and their level of personal satisfaction.

Community Interaction among members of the community, which allows for sharing ideas, concerns, and information that permits members to know each other.

Community Involvement, which is more than interaction or identity. It means each individual actively cares about what happens in his/her community. It is the loyalty and concerns that come from having a sense of ownership and control over the decisions and directions in which the group is heading.

For the mentor, nurturing the community of mentors with whom the faculty is associated, means:

Creating a shared vision among vested faculty on the value of cross-racial or cross-gender mentoring

Serving as an agent of change in the perception of his or her faculty colleagues