Carol A. Mullen

Constructing Co-Mentoring Partnerships: Walkways We Must Travel

Carol A. Mullen is assistant professor of education at Auburn University. A BOVE THE ENTRANCEWAY OF A COVERED BRIDGE is written, “Cross this bridge at a walk.” Single travelers on horseback surely were tempted to race through the bridge, but we could not hurry this process. Change takes time. Crossing at a walk slowed us down, allowing time for conversation and reflection. (Newton, Nash, & Ruffin, 1996, p. 84)

The Postmodern Educator. Arts-Based Inquiries and Teacher Development

Book Review The Postmodern Educator. Arts-based Inquiries and Teacher Development Diamond, Patrick and Mullen, Carol. (Eds.) 1999. New York: Peter Lang. 466 pages. ISBN 0820441015 (paperback) Educational Research in Transition Take a strip of paper and join its both ends so that you wind one end upside down before fixing it together with the other. You have constructed the central metaphor of Diamond and Mullens book The Postmodern Educator, the double-faced Mobius strip that symbolizes the dualistic and endless movement of artistic knowing. Learning is constructing a threedimensional spiral: moving to the beginning of a new cycle on the other side of the strip and changing the point of view. The editors of this book, flooded with metaphors, describe themselves as educator detectives around the autopsy table questioning the tradition of empirical research and creating new methodology. They are accompanied by phenomenological humanists, subjective particularists, representatives of critical theory, poststructuralists, contextualists, constructivists, narrativists, postmodernists, and arts-based inquirers. Their aim is not to bring heretics to trial or to detect the causes of a crime but to understand the situation. To proceed in the metaphoric line of the editors, the book is about composing new melodies, about a journey along a slippery lakeshore, in labyrinths, galleries, stairways... The conceptual keys of the research then become narrativity, experiential inquiry, participation, openness, and pluralism. Instead of promoting the enlightenment story of progress, the authors prefer open-ended and contradictory texts, networks and complexity in posing questions. The book comes out in a time of fracture and transition in educational research and in society at large. It is a contribution to the discourse on the paradigm change, and it reflects upon the effects of the postmodern state of teacher education and scholarly work. The editors characterize their standpoint to postmodernism as reaching for something that does not yet exist. On the other hand, they consider their book a palimpsest, like parchment bearing traces of several layers of revised texts. From the intertextual point of view, there is nothing new in the book; it leans on the works of others, as in pastiche. The task of reviewing the book came to me in the middle of intensive debate on the nature of the so-called artistic research in Finnish art colleges. Are our communities of arts and education prepared to carry out postmodern demands for change: Could a dissertation be a poem, a performance, or a painting? My position in the debate is that of a Finnish art teacher educator and a researcher whose postgraduate studies included 2 years in the United States. I decided to write my review according to the methods of the authors, i.e. through listening to the contradictory voices it provoked in myself. Teacher Researcher as Artist The authors are socially active educational researchers and their main goal is integrating arts into research. Awareness of both this premise as well as the backgrounds of the authors is worth noticing to understand the book. Most of the chapters are written by the editors, Australian born Patrick Diamond and his former student Carol Mullen who is nowadays working in the USA. The book is largely based on Professor Diamonds research classes at the University of Toronto in Canada. The other authors are five professors, one kindergarten teacher, four high school teachers, and a puppeteer. They hail from the USA, Australia, and Canada. One of the education professors is the only writer who has studied any visual arts. The editors emphasize the nature of art as a representation of reality. Unlike in correspondence theory, everything we know is transformed by language and power structures. The quality of experience often emerges only after being represented in artful form. …

Self-Efficacy as an Engaged Learner

Student underachievement brought about by low academic motivation is a major factor contributing to school dropout. Motivation affects students’ engagement, or how their cognitions, behaviors, and affects are energized, directed, and sustained during academic activities. According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, self-efficacy (perceived capabilities for learning or performing actions at designated levels) is a key cognitive variable influencing motivation and engagement. The conceptual framework of social cognitive theory is described to include the roles played by vicarious, symbolic, and self-regulatory processes. We discuss how self-efficacy affects motivation through goals and self-evaluations of progress and how various contextual factors may influence self-efficacy. Research is described that relates self-efficacy to underachievement and dropout. This chapter concludes with programs designed to raise school success and recommendations for future research.

Untenured Faculty: Issues of transition, adjustment and mentorship

A needs assessment for mentoring between faculty in higher education could highlight the personal and professional needs of junior professors not being met by existing academic structures. Assessments that include the responses of untenured faculty can identify critical issues of socialisation in the effort to develop effective mentoring programmes. This study is based on the personal reflections of 60 untenured faculty working in the United States, Canada, and Australia who revealed salient aspects of their cultural adjustment. The original questionnaire probed issues of faculty socialisation in several key areas. The data are organised into themes involving criteria for gaining tenure, collegiality as collaboration and competition, and politics and the academic power structure. The data also suggest that the pre-tenure years can be analysed as early and advanced phases of adjustment.

Creating a collaborative leadership network: an organic view of change

This study investigated the value of the West Alabama Learning Coalition, a multiinstitutional organization in rural Alabama, as perceived by its members, a diverse group of professionals in schools, universities, community colleges, businesses, and social service agencies. Documents, observations, and interviews were the data collection tools in this qualitative research study. Factors that motivated members to join and remain involved in the network are reported. The analysis resulted in a view of the coalition as a dynamic and organic creative entity that fosters synergy, empowered and shared leadership, and personal and organizational transformation.

Guest Editor’s Introduction: “A Self-Fashioned Gallery of Aesthetic Practice”

Welcome to the “gallery” of latest works to emerge from within the artsbased educational research (ABER) community. This art gallery is an interactive “exhibit space” in which individuals “display” their works as part of their “ongoing commitment to support art within our community” (Piantanida, McMahon, & Garman, 2000, p. 1). This is not a gallery in the traditional sense, a space containing a static set of objects that imposes “critical distance,” casting viewers as “passive spectators” (Dolan, 1988). Instead, this performance text, like other such texts, offers a “montage” of images for engagement that

At the tipping point? Role of formal faculty mentoring in changing university research cultures

The present article focuses on how faculty can be guided in the mentoring process and how formal mentoring programs improve practice, as well as the impact of formal mentoring on new faculty and faculty mentors. The empirical case study described features a new faculty mentoring program in its second year of development in a university research culture in Florida, USA. A goal of early‐stage faculty mentoring programs might be to attain what Gladwell refers to as the ‘tipping point,’ where faculty mentoring becomes contagious. Perspectives and strategies used to create not only an effective mentoring program within research cultures but also a movement entrenched in faculty–faculty mentoring are highlighted. Results from program assessment data are reported, with insights and recommendations from faculty mentors and mentees.

Mentoring doctoral students through scholastic engagement: adult learning principles in action

The purpose of this discussion is to explore a graduate intervention that was aimed at promoting the understanding, empowerment, and skills building of doctoral students in education. Addressed are mentoring and learning frameworks, background issues, the pedagogical context, study details, thematic results, and implications. The authors offer a perspective on mentoring as a feminist process of collaborative learning and scholastic engagement. Adult learning principles are illustrated through an innovative, curricular approach to student mentoring, leadership, and learning. Issues of power and learning in mentoring relationships and structures are explored and the perspectives of female doctoral students are incorporated. Five data sources were collected and analysed: electronic interviews; audio‐taped conversations; reflection journals; email communications; and written assignments. Insight is provided into the major challenges, potential breakthroughs, and learning experiences for the students involved. Benefits for the participants included understanding of productive scholarly habits and graduate school norms. It is concluded that reciprocal learning and group learning are vital to the scholarly and professional learning of adult learners.

Linking Research and Teaching: A Study of Graduate Student Engagement.

This exploratory study focuses on ways to approach the complex, intangible dynamic at work in the learning of graduate students in qualitative research courses. Important issues in graduate student research development are investigated and also demonstrated through applications of non-traditional methodologies. The professor/researcher argues that educators need to connect live performances of research to their pedagogy and to share the discoveries made by students in concert with themselves. Pedagogical issues in the teaching of research methodology, which this article addresses, have yet to become a major focus of scholarship. This study responds by linking teaching, through the development of methodologies and understandings in a qualitative course, to the field of research. The workshop format was used as a context for experimenting with community development as a form of collaborative self-directed learning. Preliminary findings indicate that student research development is enhanced through group activities that support multiple approaches to qualitative analysis.

The Need for a Curricular Writing Model for Graduate Students

Higher education (HE) needs to include research-based writing models that promote the academic skills and professionalisation of students. Institutions of HE have yet to realise the goal of providing the level of training and support graduate students need to publish their research findings. This article argues that it should be a fundamental responsibility of postgraduate study programmes to provide their participants with writing skills that enable them to achieve publication within an academic/professional context. This inquiry provides support for lecturing staff who want to mentor graduate students to write for professional development, publication, and contribution to their fields of study. The article provides a description of the Writing Process and Feedback (WPF) model as a blueprint for lecturing staff to modify and include within their academic courses.