Using collaborative autoethnography to explore online doctoral mentoring: Finding empathy in mentor/protégé relationships

Abstract

We used collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to investigate how we, in our prior work as doctoral mentors at an online institution that assigned students to dissertation chairs, navigated the challenges associated with relationship deterioration with some of our student protégés. We explored how the process of reflection and interrogation might shape our future responses to conflict so that we might improve our strategies for successful and satisfying mentoring outcomes. We applied Rusbult, Zembrodt, and Gunn's (1982) framework, with constructs Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect (EVLN), to examine specific cases from our work as dissertation mentors. Originally created to help explain responses to romantic relationship deterioration, we applied this framework to the dissertation mentor-protégé relationship in order to reflect on ways to improve student progress. Two themes from our analysis of each case emerged from the data. Each theme tied to the student's behavior and the impact that behavior had on our collective perception. Implications are provided for mentoring students in online doctoral programs.

The Relationship between Servant Leadership Characteristics of School Teachers and Students’ Academic Achievement

“…Hiring practices could also be a factor. It could be that, in hiring, the school administrators carefully screened applicants to make sure that they possessed servant leadership qualities (Duffy, 2018;Yong, 2013).…”

Adapting to the Transitional Stage of the Doctoral Environment: An Autoethnography of Socialization

“…Advising or mentoring relationships can also play a positive role in persistence (Esposito et al, 2017;Gardner, 2010;Mason, 2016). Mentors who are social and accessible to their students (Barnes et al, 2010) and who display empathy and emotional support for their student mentees may be especially well suited to encourage persistence (Duffy et al, 2018). At each stage, mentors should be adjusted according to student needs, which vary depending on their stage in the doctoral process (Gonzale-Ocamp & Castello, 2018).…”

“…If we define doctoral socialization as interacting and integrating into an environment to become a part of that group (Johnson et al, 2017), then doctoral socialization occurs when a student engages with other members of the doctoral culture-fellow students, faculty, and staff-so the student becomes familiar enough with the norms and expectations, the skills, abilities, and even values of their departments to eventually become a member of the community. Recent attention has been given to socializing doctoral students into their future professions (Elliot et al, 2019;Rubinstein-Avila & Maranzana, 2015;Russell et al, 2016) and the benefits of mentoring (Anekstein & Vereen, 2018;Duffy, et al, 2018;Esposito et al, 2017;Malin & Hackmann, 2016); however, less attention has been given to the experiences of incoming students as they navigate the unfamiliar territory of new expectations and academic uncertainty during their first year of doctoral coursework, and even less attention has been given to students resistant to social learning. This article fills that gap by sharing an autoethnographic narrative of my adaptation process during the first year of my doctoral program.…”

Online mentoring for academic practice: strategies, implications, and innovations

“…Extensive studies exist on faculty mentoring 3,10,15–17 and online mentoring of graduate students; 18,19 however, research is scarce on online mentoring for academics teaching in higher education. Our study aims to explore online mentoring that supports novice university teachers in their international teaching endeavor at geographically distant institutions.…”