Laura Gail Lunsford

Doctoral Advising or Mentoring? Effects on Student Outcomes

This study investigated the extent to which doctoral advisors provided mentoring to their students and if mentor support influenced doctoral student outcomes. Survey results from 477 respondents, across disciplines at two universities, indicated that most students believed mentoring was important and over half of them received mentoring support from their advisor. Regression results showed advisor mentoring was related to student outcomes, but the pattern varied by type of mentoring (psychosocial or career), student outcome (satisfaction, number of presentations, and number of publications), and discipline. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Psychology of Mentoring: The Case of Talented College Students

Mentoring is an important relationship that can transform talented students into elite performers. There has been limited empirical study on the psychology of the mentoring relationship. Most of the research focuses on mentee benefits, while the motivation and interests of the mentee have been relatively neglected. This study analyzed archival interview records (N = 128) from three cohorts of academically talented students who had participated in a faculty mentorship program for six semesters. A mixed-methods analysis, guided by a grounded theory approach, was used to quantitize the qualitative data. Two themes emerged from the qualitative analysis. First, 1 in 4 of the students did not feel mentored for one of three reasons. Some students were mentored by faculty outside the program. Other students did not see the need for a mentor. The rest of the unmentored students were either unable or unwilling to identify another faculty mentor. Second, selecting a profession was related to the quality of their mentor relationship. Students who reported career certainty were more likely to report having a high-quality mentoring relationship. Great mentors provided career support to the students by involving them in research, taking them to conferences, and connecting them to other faculty. After quantitatively coding the qualitative data, multinomial logistic regression was used to predict student ratings of the quality of the mentor relationship from career certainty. Students were more likely to report a better mentor relationship as career certainty increased from no career plan to developing a career plan. Student career needs may influence mentor relationships with faculty and should be given greater consideration in mentoring practice.

Mentoring: A Typology of Costs for Higher Education Faculty

In this theoretical paper, we apply a social exchange framework to understand mentors’ negative experiences. We propose a typology of costs, categorized according to psychosocial and career mentoring functions. Our typology generates testable research propositions. Psychosocial costs of mentoring are burnout, anger, and grief or loss. Career costs of mentoring include diminished reputation, decrease in productivity, and risk of ethical transgressions. The typology focuses on faculty in higher education because of the prevalence and importance of mentoring in that work setting. However, the typology may be extended to career arenas such as law, medicine, and the military. The theory presents a framework for acknowledging negative experiences and the costs associated with mentorship.

Faculty as Mentors in Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work: Motivating and Inhibiting Factors.

In this study, we sought to contribute to research about the high-impact practice of undergraduate research from the understudied faculty perspective. We relied on focus group data from faculty members (N = 41) across five institutions to better understand the supporting and inhibiting factors that contribute to faculty members’ engagement in mentoring undergraduate research. We offer implications for research and practice.

Early Career Academic Staff Support: Evaluating Mentoring Networks.

Which academics benefit from participation in formal mentoring programmes? This study examined the needs and mentoring networks of new academics with evaluative data from a pilot mentoring programme. Themes from these data point towards re-envisioning initiatives for academic staff development. First, an examination of the expansion of mentoring networks of new staff suggests that some need more support than others. Second, new academics have common needs in professional development support, despite disciplinary differences and the beliefs of many administrators. Third, evaluation of new academics’ self-reports show that there are differences in mentoring preferences that influence programme participation. Fourth, participant reports reveal both perceived benefits and some detriments of programme participation. Fifth, a somewhat widespread academic mentoring mindset was identified that may lead to problematic mentoring outcomes depending on demographic characteristics of protégés. Implications for administrators in charge of staff development and avenues for future research are presented.

Academic departments as networks of informal learning: faculty development at liberal arts colleges

In this article, we consider the role of departmental contexts and relationships in faculty work within liberal arts colleges. Knowledge about how departmental networks relate to success and satisfaction may inform the work of those who support faculty work in liberal arts colleges, as well as other institution types. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative survey data from faculty members at 13 liberal arts colleges in the US suggests that informal departmental relationships influence faculty experiences. Findings suggest that departmental leaders and colleagues are sources of professional development and support, but that counter-productive behaviours interfere with such support and foster negative workplace cultures.

Mentors, tormentors, and no mentors: mentoring scientists

Purpose – A psychosocial, developmental perspective was used to examine the mentoring experiences of scientists. Little is known about the timing of when mentors first appear, the quality of these relationships, the specific mentoring support behaviors, or how scientists typically learn to mentor. The paper aims to discuss the above issues. Design/methodology/approach – The author conducted 23, semi-structured interviews with Australian scientists. Questions focussed on mentor-like support scientists received and provided. Interviews were analyzed and themes were coded using Dedoose software. Findings – Scientists who had mentors as undergraduates were more likely to report long-lasting relationships with their mentors and more positive interactions with their proteges. Scientists reported the following career mentoring behaviors: modeling how to do science, sponsorship, collaboration, and practical supervision. Important psychosocial mentoring behaviors were being approachable, building confidence and pr...

Faculty mentoring faculty: career stages, relationship quality, and job satisfaction

The purpose of this paper is to understand faculty mentoring experiences across career stages and the influence of mentoring relationship quality on job satisfaction. The study participants were faculty members from a consortium of liberal arts colleges in the USA. The theoretical lens draws from scholarship on career stages, developmental networks, and working alliances.,The analysis is based on a subset of 415 faculty member responses about mentoring from a larger data set on faculty development. The online survey was conducted in Spring 2014. Frequencies, χ2, regression equations, and confirmatory factor analysis were computed using R statistical software.,Over half the faculty members were both mentors and proteges; although, a sizable minority of faculty members did not engage in mentoring. Early-career faculty members were significantly more likely to have a mentor than were mid- or late-career faculty members. For both mentors and proteges, the higher they rated the quality of the mentoring relationship, the more job satisfaction they reported; this finding was greatest for mid-career (associate rank) faculty members. Participants reported significantly higher relationship quality with their mentors than with their proteges.,The results may not generalize to faculty members who work at other institution types, for example, research-intensive or two-year schools, or to non-US higher education contexts. Statements made regarding those who do not participate in mentoring are speculative on the part of the authors.,Institutions may need to develop support for faculty members who may not desire to engage in mentoring. More attention may be warranted to create individual and institutional supports focused on high-quality mentoring.,This study extends the literature on mentoring by establishing that many employees serve in mentor and protege roles simultaneously. Further, employees engage in mentoring relationships across career stages as mentors and as proteges. The authors developed a reliable measure of mentoring relationship quality that may be used in future mentoring studies. Higher quality mentoring relationships were associated with significantly greater job satisfaction.

Faculty development in liberal arts colleges: a look at divisional trends, preferences, and needs

ABSTRACT This research explores faculty development through the lens of academic division as an important, career defining characteristic of the professoriate. Relying on data from a longitudinal, mixed-methods study, the authors examined faculty development trends and needed supports in a consortium of 13 liberal arts colleges (LACs). As part of this research, the authors feature the Alignment Framework for Faculty Development in Liberal Arts Colleges to help administrators, faculty developers, and faculty members situate faculty development efforts at the intersection of institutional goals and priorities and individual needs. Implications for research and practice are offered.

Preparing Leaders While Neglecting Leadership An Analysis of U.S. Collegiate Leadership Centers

This study systematically examines collegiate leadership centers and their role in leader development. The findings extend research from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership by focusing on centers as the unit of analysis. Our mixed-method approach involved coding center websites and analyzing center director responses from an online survey. Results indicate a proliferation of leadership centers, especially at public universities, as well as a leader-centric philosophy that directs much leader development programs. The results from 69 leadership centers in the United States highlight a disconnect between research and practice, and an opportunity to advance leader development through greater use of evidence-based methods.