ERIC Number: EJ1406342
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1536-3759
EISSN: EISSN-1539-4107
Joining and Renewing the Mission: New Faculty Mentoring and Institutional Vitality
Matthew D. Lundberg
Christian Higher Education, v22 n5 p324-335 2023
Mentoring of some sort is always part of the socialization process as new faculty members join the life and mission of a university. One type of mentoring is informal in nature. Newer members of a community pick up on the ways of an institution through "water cooler" conversations, casual interactions with colleagues, and even the unguarded comments of those who have been haunting the halls of the institution for much longer. Although it is inevitable and can be valuable, such informal mentoring also involves potential pitfalls. Accordingly, this article argues for the importance of formal mentoring programs. These formal mentoring structures require attentiveness to their built-in assumptions about new faculty members and about the institution itself. Formal, structured mentoring can easily default to the goal of initiating new faculty members into a static establishment. It is also possible, however, for mentoring programs to invite and empower new faculty to contribute to the institution and its mission in creative and revitalizing ways. In proposing an "invitational" ethos for formal mentoring, this article reports on early findings from participants in a mentoring program for newer faculty at Calvin University.
Descriptors: College Faculty, Novices, Mentors, Teacher Empowerment, Institutional Mission, Teacher Attitudes, Models, Religious Colleges, Christianity
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Michigan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A