Mentoring and socialisation: senior female faculty and mentoring practices

摘要

The research and literature on mentoring practices is relatively new, and within this emerging area, there are few studies that focus on the experiences of mentors. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the experiences of one group of mentors: senior female faculty in the sciences and engineering. Through interviews with female professors and associate professors, mentoring experiences are explored. Based on a grounded theory approach to collect and analyse the data, two major findings emerge. First, the interviewees revealed an overall organisational emphasis on mentoring students. This phenomenon is fostered by an academic environment that values anticipatory socialisation and scientific productivity over organisational socialisation and personal development. However, the interviewees explicitly expressed that a lack of mentoring for faculty members was detrimental to their careers. This second finding defines a clear disconnect between the values of the institution and the needs of the female faculty members.