This qualitative study was designed to review the history of women in leadership and to evaluate the identified facilitators of success for women in leadership positions. Participants were asked to identify the facilitators that they considered important to their success. The facilitators were then compared to determine the most commonly occurring and the most influential among those cited by the participants. The results reflected those facilitators such as mentoring programs, training programs, as well as informal opportunities. Emotional intelligence was also examined in the context of this research. The findings of this qualitative study yielded the facilitators of success as identified by successful women leaders. Facilitators identified included familial or parental support, intrinsic motivation, educational opportunities, professional growth opportunities, emotional intelligence and mentors.

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Many newly graduated registered nurses (NGRNs) leave the nursing profession within the first 2 years of employment in a rural hospital located in the Southwestern region of Oklahoma. A strategy to address this problem was to introduce a mentorship process that would help support the NGRNs as they transition into independent practice in the clinical setting. The goal of this project was to develop a mentorship program for future implementation. The Partners In Nursing (PIN) program sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the American Nurses Association, was selected to support the NGRN transition from student nurse to practicing clinician with a goal to improve retention rates by 10 percent. Benner's novice to expert framework and the Psychological Empowerment model were used in the development of activities contained within the mentorship program modules. Barrett's theory of power helped to guide the development of resilience activities for the future participants. An evaluation plan was developed to monitor new nurse progress before and during the program using the Casey and Fink questionnaire to evaluate the needs and job performance of the participants. The target hospital National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) was analyzed to help justify the project abe used in future evaluations. Facilitating mentorship will result in social change through increased autonomy of the new professionals, along with improved retention which positively impacts patient outcomes. Social change will bridge the gap in retention and the cost of replacing a NGRN. Dissemination of this project is planned to occur both within the facility and at the relevant national organizations supporting nurse educators.

College enrollment has improved among Black and Latino students during the last several decades due partly to the influence of formal and informal mentors and increasing parental support of higher education. However, college completion for these underrepresented minority groups continues to lag behind graduation rates for White students. This research sought to examine whether pre-college relationships influence college completion. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of social capital from pre-college networks, including parental capital and mentor capital, race and gender on college completion utilizing logistic regression. The results indicated that one form of parental capital, parental education, is positively associated with college completion for all students. Three forms of parental capital, however, were positively associated with completion for Black students. Contrary to hypothesis, mentor capital was not a significant predictor of graduation for any group. Furthermore, Black and Latina women graduated at higher rates and received more parental support for academic performance than their male counterparts. Implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the first two years of beginning teachers' professional development and learning. The study sought to document and understand the conditions and discursive practices of seven purposely selected schools that were implementing robust beginning teacher induction programmes. The focus was on induction, located in a comprehensive national system, to reveal the practices and tensions experienced by beginning teachers as they advanced their learning and development. It is anticipated that the seven case studies, along with the working theory of sound induction will add to the body of knowledge in the field of teacher learning and professional development and contribute to the debate about teachers' work and quality teaching. Few studies have investigated beginning teacher (BT) induction in comprehensively resourced systems. Much of the research investigates fragmented parts of BT experiences. The literature shows that when a holistic examination of induction is carried out it tends to be predominantly in the secondary school context. In-depth research into year one and year two teacher learning and professional development in sound primary school induction programmes was not found. The study provides a working theory of beginning teacher learning and, as Renwick (2001, p. 33) suggested, exemplars to maximise the effectiveness of schools to employ and support beginning teachers . Sound induction has the potential to positively influence teacher practice as research evidence indicates early career experiences affect future practice. The research is a multi-site collective case study that takes an interpretative, qualitative stance drawing on constructionism to inform the interplay between sociological and psychological theoretical disciplines, which make the information visible in different ways. The case studies scrutinise in depth, individual school contexts and are instrumental in providing better understanding and theorising about the collective case of beginning teacher induction. The primary sources of data were individual and focus group interview transcriptions. In addition, there were the accompanying notes and related school documentation. i Data analysis was an iterative process of inductive and deductive reasoning to make meaning that moved beyond description to identify categories and themes that emerged both within schools and across schools. Evidence of sound BT induction was found although variation in induction practices between schools was noted. Beginning teacher induction went beyond advice and guidance to incorporate educative mentoring in collaborative, collegial schools where high expectations prevailed. The findings suggest that teacher learning should be informed but not constrained by lock-step models of learning and development. Aspects of development as a professional were advanced and, in other respects, marginalised by the education policy focus on children's achievement. Feedback and children's learning and achievement underpin beginning teachers' judgements about their development as teachers. The socio-economic school contexts were less important than the quality of leadership, school cultures, expectations and the confidence of individual novice teachers. The study raises questions about the nature of teachers' work and teacher, government and societal expectations. It is anticipated that these findings will increase understanding of, and provoke debate about beginning teacher learning and their development as professionals.

The program of research reported here provides a contemporary view of mentoring relationships. In particular, it presents a definition that reflects mentoring experiences in modern organisations, identifies mentoring functions and benefits as perceived by mentees and mentors, and examines the relationships between those constructs and gender. Forty-eight mentees and mentors from a range of organisations, representing all possible gender combinations of mentee-mentor, were interviewed about their mentoring experiences. Content analysis of the interview data identified 42 categories of mentoring functions and 29 categories of benefits perceived by mentees and mentors. The emergent categories of mentoring functions and benefits were used to construct measurement instruments. The instruments were then completed by 500 mentees and mentors, again representing all four gender combinations of mentee-mentor, from a range of organisations. Principal components analyses revealed seven mentoring functions identified by mentees and eight by mentors. Those functions were Personal and Emotional Guidance, Coaching/Learning Facilitation (identified as two separate functions by mentors), Advocacy, Role Modelling, Career Development Facilitation, Strategies and Systems Advice, and Friendship. The study extended empirical research by identifying a range of distinct mentoring functions rather than the broad category approach adopted in previous research. The principal components solutions generated separately for mentees and mentors were similar, indicating convergent views between the providers and recipients of these functions. Several of the mentoring functions that emerged were similar to those identified by Kram (1980) and the emergence of new functions was interpreted in light of changes in organisations over the past 20 years and the recruitment of representative samples, in this study, that reflected those changes. Principal components analyses also revealed four mentoring benefits identified by mentees and five by mentors. Benefits for mentees were Professional Enhancement, Interpersonal Relationship, Professional Induction/ Immersion, and Professional Reward. By identifying the benefits that mentees themselves perceive as being attributable to their mentoring relationships, the current study extended empirical research on mentee benefits beyond, objective, traditionally measured outcome variables. Benefits for mentors were Professional Enhancement, Organisational and Peer Recognition, Interpersonal Relationship, Meaningfulness and Fulfillment, and Productivity. The range of benefits that emerged reflects the importance mentees and mentors place on the psychological and interpersonal experiences of their mentoring relationships. The relationships between mentoring functions and benefits and gender were examined for both mentees and mentors. Results indicate that gender effects are limited to only some mentoring functions and benefits. Examination of the relationships between distinct mentoring functions and benefits indicated that specific mentoring functions are related to particular benefits for both mentees and mentors. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

The purpose of the current study is determine if the presence of a natural mentor, and/or the quality of relationship within protégé-mentor relationships, predicts the development of Future Orientation (FO) among African American girls living in conditions of risk. A sample of 160 girls of African descent was recruited from 6 elementary and middle schools. An exploratory factor analysis of 19 FO items suggested a 2-factor model consisting of (1) motivation and (2) planning. The model did not support the third expected factor, evaluation. The presence of natural mentors failed to predict concurrent levels of FO. Relationship quality did significantly predict concurrent levels of FO. Post-hoc analyses indicated that the consistent presence of a natural mentor predicted the development of FO. Post-hoc analyses also indicated the relationship quality with one’s, significantly predicted the development of FO among consistently mentored girls. Methodological limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

National Board-certified (NBC) teachers are recognized as accomplished teachers who have met the National Board's stringent standards. These teachers are encouraged to serve as mentors to novice teachers and veteran teachers in candidacy for National Board Certification. This study identified and compared the career and psychosocial mentoring functions that NBC teacher mentors and non-NBC teacher mentors perceived they provided to their protégés' at the elementary grade levels. National Board-certified protégés' perceptions of having the functions provided were compared with those of their teacher mentors and with the protégés' of non-NBC teacher mentors. The research was conducted in a large urban school district in Florida and included 190 participants: 95 mentors and their protégés'. The teacher mentors' perceptions of having provided the mentoring functions were assessed using the Mentoring Functions Scale for the Mentor, and the protégés' perceptions were measured with the Mentoring Functions Scale for the Protégé. Both instruments were adapted for this study from a previous mentoring scale for the protégé developed by Noe (1988). Results for the study indicated no statistically significant differences between the NBC teacher mentors and the non-NBC teacher mentors in their perceptions of having provided the functions. Significant differences were found between NBC teacher mentors and their protégés on the exposure-and-visibility function, between non-NBC teacher mentors and their protégés on the challenging assignments function, and between all mentors and all protégés on the challenging assignments function. Implications for teacher mentors, administrators, and scholars are provided. These include developing or updating existing mentoring programs to include the career and psychosocial functions studied in this research, providing mentors and protégés with information about the functions in order to assess the existence of specific functions, expanding professional development time to address functions that may have been inadequate, and possibly limiting the number of protégés with whom teacher mentors interact and guide.

The purpose of the current study is determine if the presence of a natural mentor, and/or the quality of relationship within protégé-mentor relationships, predicts the development of Future Orientation (FO) among African American girls living in conditions of risk. A sample of 160 girls of African descent was recruited from 6 elementary and middle schools. An exploratory factor analysis of 19 FO items suggested a 2-factor model consisting of (1) motivation and (2) planning. The model did not support the third expected factor, evaluation. The presence of natural mentors failed to predict concurrent levels of FO. Relationship quality did significantly predict concurrent levels of FO. Post-hoc analyses indicated that the consistent presence of a natural mentor predicted the development of FO. Post-hoc analyses also indicated the relationship quality with one’s, significantly predicted the development of FO among consistently mentored girls. Methodological limitations and implications for future research are discussed.