Mentoring Philosophy
I serve as a mentor for new and returning graduate teaching assistants and College Credit Plus instructors in the General Studies Writing program at Bowling Green State University. Whether I am mentoring students or colleagues, my philosophy is based on mutual respect and empowerment. My goals as a mentor are similar to my goals as a teacher and I strive—in both roles—to practice flexibility and reflection.
I always begin my relationships with my mentees with a foundation of mutual respect and appreciation. Although when I am in the mentor role I do guide and teach my mentees, I begin and reinforce each of these relationships with the understanding that my mentees come to the relationship with expertise and experiences of their own that are distinct from and just as valuable as my own. In this way, mentorship is always reciprocal. I begin each new mentoring relationship by getting to know my mentee through the skills, perspectives, and goals they bring with them. In the same way that, as a teacher, I remind my students they each come to our class with knowledge, I encourage my mentees to call on their knowledge and earlier experiences to guide them through the new challenges they are facing whether that is graduate school, teaching a new course, or even teaching for the first time. Whether I am mentoring a high school teacher teaching college credit courses at their school in the College-Credit Plus program or a first-time graduate teaching associate, I honor my mentee’s ability and perspective first.
This respect is especially important when I support my mentees’ goals. As an advocate as sponsor for them, it is imperative that I have a clear understanding of these goals as the ways they might differ from my own goals as a teacher and scholar. Once I know these goals, I recognize and seek out opportunities for my mentees including scholarships, awards, and professional development—linking what they want to achieve with how to achieve it. When these opportunities do not already exist, I can often create opportunities based on mentees’ needs. For example, when several of my graduate teaching assistants voiced concern about low student participation in their courses, I designed and facilitated a workshop on discussion strategies that I later presented as a departmental workshop. Similarly, I hosted a curriculum vitae and teaching philosophy workshop for mentees preparing materials for the job market where I shared my materials, provided examples from other colleagues, and prompted the group to offer their colleagues with feedback on drafts of materials. When mentees have interests or goals beyond my personal area of expertise, I can direct them to another colleague, mentor, or even fellow mentee who does have the skillset or connections to help.
Alongside this adaptation and attention to mentees’ unique goals, comes a flexibility that drives both my teaching and mentoring. While I might enter a mentorship relationship with certain expectations or even guiding objectives in mind, mentorship must be malleable and able to change with not only the needs of my mentee but our mentor-mentee dynamic, the context of our mentorship, and individual challenges that arise during that mentorship. This flexibility is apparent especially in mentoring relationships with graduate teaching assistants. Although these mentees first come to me with questions about pedagogical theory and teaching practices or challenges with their curriculum and students, these relationships often transform into professional mentorships. I have offered feedback on mentees’ applications to doctoral programs, offered advice about job applications and interviews, and guidance for negotiating the challenges of graduate school. Working closely with these mentees gives me insight into not only their teaching personas, but all the other roles they have that influence their teaching.
While some mentoring relationships are brief, while teaching assistants temporarily teach a course outside their program for instance, others are long-lasting and transcend their original context. The most rewarding mentoring relationships have evolved and continued beyond that context. In these relationships especially, I know that I am not a leader of many followers, but a leader fostering more leaders. The greatest success I feel as a mentor is watching my mentees take on mentoring roles of their own and reflecting on ways their experiences can guide others.