A Developmental Framework for Mentorship in SoTL Illustrated by Three Examples of Unseen Opportunities for Mentoring

Abstract

Mentoring relationships that form between scholars of teaching and learning occur formally and informally, across varied pathways and programs. In order to better understand such relationships, this paper proposes an adapted version of a three-stage model of mentoring, using three examples of unseen opportunities for mentoring in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to illustrate how this framework might be operationalized. We discuss how the adapted framework might be useful to SoTL scholars in the future to examine mentorship and how unseen opportunities for mentoring might shape how we consider this subset of mentorship going forward.

Surfing the fourth wave: An examination of faculty motivation(s) to participate in SoTL

“…In what some scholars have referred to as “meta‐SoTL” studies (Chick and Poole 2014), for example, there has been a tendency to identify enablers of SoTL engagement or those factors that serve to advance the forward momentum of SoTL as a movement and as a catalyst for individual and collective teaching transformation, respectively (Schroeder, 2007). Several influential studies, for instance, have focused on harnessing the intrinsic motivations of faculty and, increasingly, students to engage in work that enhances learning (e.g., Acai et al., 2017; Friberg et al., 2021; Huber & Robinson 2016; Kim et al., 2021; Kolomitro et al., 2018).…”

Reimagining the 4M Framework in Educational Development for SoTL

“…In educational development, the provision of services to bolster SoTL may also include support for publication and other forms of dissemination (or the making public of SoTL "products"), individual consultations, courses, workshops, conferences, as well as other forms of professional development and advocacy. These varied modalities provide opportunities for collegial discussions and the formation of mentoring relationships between SoTL scholars and those doing educational development to advance individual SoTL projects and the broader endeavor of SoTL, as well (Friberg et al 2021). These interactions require a level of understanding of and expertise in SoTL that transcends disciplinary ways of knowing and thinking.…”

“…Specifically, we explore how the 4M Framework may be applied with more fluidity and we position it across a set of intersecting continua, where the individual, fixed levels of the 4M Framework are layered and potentially taking place simultaneously within educational development work. We share a concrete example from our professional calendar as a "day in the life" of an educational developer to make clear how the 4Ms exist not as levels, but as layers that weave in and out of our daily practice, braiding our lived worlds as SoTL scholars and SoTL mentors (Friberg et al 2021) and providing support to others engaged in SoTL work.…”

A Developmental Framework for Mentorship in SoTL Illustrated by Three Examples of Unseen Opportunities for Mentoring

“…Formal mentoring programs are structured and deliberate, often organized around specific goals (Coles 2011). Formal mentoring allows greater participation among marginalized individuals such as women and people of color who may not have access to informal mentoring relationships (Beech et al 2013;Boyd, Cintron, and Alexander-Snow 2010;Hansman 2002;Palepu et al 1998;Ragins and Cotton 1991;1999). However, further research has indicated that formal mentoring is limited by the initial development of the relationship because participants are compelled into the mentoring relationship through organizational assistance in which one or both participants may not share the same level of commitment in each other or motivations for entering into mentorship (Allen, Eby, and Lentz 2006;Eby and Lockwood 2005;Hansman 2003;Kram 1985).…”