Rebuilding faculty capacities in higher education: An alternative for relational mentoring

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore how Hungarian university teachers at a faculty of social sciences adapt developmental initiations in mentoring relationships. These relationships are designed to maximise reflective space through various mentoring structures without predefined mentoring roles. This study presents findings from a pilot faculty mentoring programme involving faculty (n = 13) from the same institution who joined on a voluntary basis for 6 months. For the analysis of the programme, baseline and end of programme survey, participants' reflective diaries and transcripts of the final focus groups were used. The content analysis of the qualitative data was supplemented by quasi-statistical descriptive analysis of the quantitative dataset. The relational perspective of the mentoring programme design nurtured (1) the multi-directional nature of the learning cycles, (2) the diverse content of the professional discussions, and (3) the programme impact on the individuals' workplace well-being.

Extending the research agenda on (ethical) coaching and mentoring in education: embracing mutuality and prioritising well-being

“…, 2020), as have others (e.g. Dreer, 2021; Káplár-Kodácsy and Dorner, 2020; Kutsyuruba and Godden, 2019), effective coaching and mentoring to be helpful means of mitigating detrimental impacts of the GERM on educators and other professionals. We thus call for the widespread adoption of ethical coaching and mentoring , by which we mean approaches to coaching and mentoring that achieve positive outcomes without causing harm or having a detrimental impact on the well-being of participants.…”

Faculty retirements will likely exacerbate the anatomy educator shortage

“…Senior faculty offer a number of benefits that could be lost with this change. Mentorship of junior and mid‐career faculty is an important, though often under‐valued, role of senior faculty (Palepu et al, 1998; Wingard et al, 2004; Sambunjak et al, 2006; Káplár‐Kodácsy, 2020). Senior faculty can offer experience‐based advice, training, support, and sponsorship to junior faculty who may lack the skills and attributes that come with experience.…”

Using multilevel mentoring as a situated learning approach to enhance the professional development of teachers in higher education

“…The evolving models of mentoring include multidisciplinary peer mentoring (Aarnikoivu et al. , 2020); flexible and reflective mentoring (Káplár-Kodácsy and Dorner, 2022); group mentoring (Mullen et al. , 2020); structured peer mentoring (Simmonds and Dicks, 2018); electronic mentoring and cultural mentoring (Mullen and Klimaitis, 2021); and multilevel mentoring (Brinia and Psoni, 2018).…”

“…Even in educational settings where there are institutionalized mentoring systems with clear policies and structures, issues such as limited time for mentors to engage with mentees, insufficient institutional support to implement mentoring activities (Mena et al, 2020) and limited support for academics in minority groups (Bhopal, 2020) have been reported. At the same time, there is a growing body of literature that have proposed that educational institutions should explore and develop effective approaches to mentoring (Aarnikoivu et al, 2020;K apl ar-Kod acsy and Dorner, 2022;Mullen et al, 2020). One of such growing mentoring systems is multilevel mentoring (Brinia and Psoni, 2018;Mullen and Klimaitis, 2021) that include diverse professional development activities that are designed to support institutional missions and policies concerning the retention and promotion of academics.…”

“…At the same time, there is a growing body of literature that have proposed that educational institutions should explore and develop effective approaches to mentoring (Aarnikoivu et al. , 2020; Káplár-Kodácsy and Dorner, 2022; Mullen et al. , 2020).…”