3.3 Mentoring doctoral students: the need for a pedagogy  (Page 9/10)

In some of the preliminary meetings and discussion, several have mentioned the importance of improving the mentoring process at the doctoral level. Most exciting is the emergence of a theme suggesting that perhaps we are in error assuming university faculty come to the job with built-in effective mentoring knowledge and skills. If the dialogue among 18 research universities begins to focus on the realization that effective mentoring of doctoral students involves learning and teaching along with many opportunities to practice the art of mentoring, a very significant scholarly opportunity exists to radically change the way we think about mentoring of doctoral students.

Equally exciting is a recent communication one of us received from Syracuse University, his alma mater related to mentoring of doctoral students. The following is presented to demonstrate that we must get beyond the traditional definition of advising and mentoring, and stretch to look for non-traditional resources outside of our departments and programs:

January 11, 2007

Syracuse University

Dear Dr. Parks,

On behalf of the Center for Career Services (CCS) at Syracuse University, we invite you to join a highly distinguished group of Ph.D. mentors. Here at CCS we are creating a special Mentor database of alumni who are willing to communicate with students regarding career information and advice. As a Ph. D. Career Mentor and someone who has“been there”and is working in the“real world,”you can be an invaluable mentor to others who are exploring their options in the professional world.

What a valuable mentoring resource Syracuse University has tapped into. Though this innovative use of alumni mentors would not replace the face-to-face on site mentor, it certainly would add another layer to the development of a mentoring methodology (pedagogy).

We are encouraged and hopeful that our profession and its faculty have begun the important work of addressing the mentoring of doctoral students beyond the traditional role of advising.

End Note and Credit

Permission was received from Christopher-Gordon Publishers to republish this article herein in a modified, updated form: Creighton, T., Parks, D.,&Creighton, L. (2007). A pedagogy of mentoring doctoral students: Developing an educational methodology. In C. A. Mullen (Ed.), The handbook of successful mentoring programs: From undergraduate through tenure (Christopher-Gordon Publishers).

References

American College Test (2002). College graduation rates: 1983-2002 graduation trends by institution type. Retrieved November 2, 2005, from http://www.act.org/data2002/FileList.html

Boyle, P.,&Boice, B. (1998). Best practices for enculturation: Collegiality, mentoring, and structure. Thousand Oaks, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Boyle, P. (1996). Socialization experiences of new graduate students. Unpublished dissertation. State University of New York, Stoney Brook, NY.

Creighton, L. (2006). Predicting graduations rates at University Council for Educational Administration public universities. Unpublished dissertation. Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX.