Perspective Chapter: Listening, Learning and Community-building – A Faculty Peer Mentor Program Comes of Age (original) (raw)
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Social work faculty experience increasing demands to develop and maintain a research portfolio that includes external funding and publications. Given the increase in research expectations, more part-time instructors are needed to teach courses. In addition to the literature review, we briefly describe a pilot part-time faculty mentorship project developed by our school to build a strong, connected, and consistent part-time faculty team. However, we also wanted to examine mentorship programs at other schools/departments of social work; as a result, we conducted an exploratory research study with social work deans and directors nationwide. Findings suggested that while schools of social work are more likely to employ greater numbers of faculty overall, departments tend to have higher teaching expectations for full-time tenure-track faculty. Despite variability among responses, most schools and departments provide some form of support to part-time faculty members; a lack of resources was given as the primary reason for limited mentorship activities.
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Using theory and principles of group process, and influenced by feminist theory of co-mentoring, a group of social work educators met monthly in a telephone mediated support group. The purpose of the group was to offer support to faculty involved in the tenure process in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service. This paper offers an analysis of this experience. Suggestions for improved mentoring of social work faculty will be explored and areas for further research will be identified.
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Junior social work faculty members face numerous challenges in adapting to their roles and preparing for continued work in academia. Many of these challenges center around the tasks of teaching and advising. Peer-led, mutual support groups offer an accessible and effective approach to facilitating growth. Such groups offer support that addresses several common challenges facing new faculty, primarily by helping to combat isolation, and facilitate group attachment. The article draws from literature on mutual aid groups; and provides several examples illustrative of group processes from a model version of the group.
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A student-alumni mentor program that combines aspects of academic and workplace mentoring was developed and implemented in a school of social work. Foundation-year MSW students (mentees) were matched with school of social work alumni (mentors) in a formal mentoring program. This program was developed to address the needs of MSW students, alumni, and the school of social work by providing students with a professional mentor and fostering ongoing connections and opportunities for involvement for alumni. A model for designing, developing, and implementing this program is presented. Benefits of the program for students, mentors, and the school are discussed as well as lessons learned during implementation.
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This initiative promotes the professional development and career advancement of mid-career social work faculty through implementation of a formalized one-on-one faculty mentoring program and creation of a schoollevel office of professional development devised to build the school’s infrastructure for faculty professional development and research. Ninety-six percent of total costs for the initiative will be funded by the School of Social Work. The remaining 4% (or $5,000) is requested from the IUPUI Mentoring Academy. Program goals and indicators will be tracked and reported throughout the life of the initiative, and annual evaluations will be conducted to gauge overall impact of the mentoring program on IUSSW’s faculty’s career development and advancement to full-rank. Stakeholder involvement in the planning process provides support for this initiative and offers evidence of an institutional commitment to strengthen and sustain the school’s capacity to support faculty professional de...
Peer mentoring for tenure-track faculty
Journal of Professional Nursing, 2003
Four tenure-track nursing faculty members at a large, research-intensive university came together to help each other learn the role of faculty scholar and to provide discipline, critique, and collegiality for each other with the goal of building research careers. Peer mentoring is usually construed more as senior faculty mentoring newer faculty. In this model, new faculty members mentor each other based on the knowledge gained in their doctoral programs and through sharing experiences with their own mentors. The value of this strategy includes building relationships among diverse faculty members, creating opportunities for collaboration on research projects, and developing camaraderie among members that might not otherwise develop. One year after implementing this innovative strategy for faculty peer mentoring, group members report success in individual and collective scholarship productivity, more research collaboration, improved mutual expertise, and stronger relationships with each other.
Journal of Faculty Development, 2014
In light of recent interest in the limitations of early and mid-career mentoring (Driscoll et al 2009; Trowers 2011), this case study of a women’s scholarly activity and goal setting Community of Practice (CoP) indicates that such groups can offer extensive peer mentoring at one teaching-oriented state university in the United States. Using a questionnaire and open-ended essay, this study explores the impact of this CoP on its participants. We find that peer mentoring occurring in this group includes: goal setting, establishing a sense of institutional community; appreciation for group interdisciplinarity; an old girls network; friendship; feelings of connection to and membership of a group; and, support for professional development. This study has important implications for faculty development facilitators in that peer-to-peer group mentoring CoPs have a variety of benefits central to supporting female pre-tenure/early career faculty and post tenure/mid-career faculty as successful community members.