Civic-mentoring relationships: Implications for student development of civic mindedness.

摘要

Preparing students for responsible citizenship is important in higher education because we need graduates who are able to address the many issues in today's society (e.g., over-consumption of material goods, deeper political divides, fewer civic alliances, an inability to discuss public issues with civility and respect). In order to address these challenges, we need informed and engaged people with the desire and courage to make a difference, for institutions to thrive, and for people to reach high levels of fulfillment (Cohen & Prusak, 2001; Scobey, 2010). Institutions of higher education have an opportunity to address these issues by creating opportunities for students to practice and develop civic mindedness, simply described as the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be an active participant in society.;The purpose of this study was to examine student development of civic mindedness, and specifically, how having a civic mentor relates to student development of civic mindedness. A civic-mentoring relationship, defined as a developmental partnership through which one person shares knowledge, skills, information and perspectives to foster the civic-minded growth of another, holds great potential for creating opportunities for collaboration, dialogue, and problem-solving in complex community settings (adapted from Norris & Miller, 2012). In order to isolate and therefore examine the relationship between civic-mentoring relationships and student development of civic mindedness, this study controlled for other variables known to contribute to civic mindedness (i.e., opportunities for service learning, prior experiences, dialogue and reflection). Results indicate that students in a service-based scholarship program who have a civic mentor are more civic-minded at the end of the program compared to those who do not have a civic mentor.;Subsequent examination of the attributes of the civic-mentoring relationship (i.e., closeness of relationship, content and context of interactions, students' perception of their mentors' civic mindedness) revealed that the topics discussed during their interactions and the extent to which the students perceived their mentor to be civic-minded is related to student development of civic mindedness. These findings illustrate the value of civic mentoring and suggest institutions of higher education make the roles of a civic mentor more explicit and worthy of greater attention in programs, orientations, and instances where we have the attention of faculty, staff, administrators and students.