Mentoring has been acknowledged as an important foundation of teacher education worldwide and is pivotal to the development of student teachers’ teacher identity, especially during teaching practice. Despite this, mentorship seems to fall short of its intended objectives and student teachers frequently seem to perceive mentors are critical evaluators rather than as mentors. The current descriptive case study forms part of a broader research project, the Peer Enhanced Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, focused on the development of a mentorship intervention for student teachers. To determine the role student teachers expect mentor lecturers to play in the development of their teacher identities, semi-structured, open-ended questionnaires were completed anonymously by 170 student teachers after they had completed their teaching practice. These questionnaires were then analysed using an interpretive approach by means of inductive thematic analysis. Previous work, including Hudson’s Five-factor Model for Effective Teaching, acknowledged the need for mentor lecturers to integrate system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, feedback and personal attributes in order to perform important mentorship roles. These included mentor lecturers being experts (in subject didactics and pedagogy), models/guides, reflective practitioners, coaches, companions, motivators and change agents. These factors and roles were identified as significant in the current study, although the need for a caring and encouraging relationship between the student teacher and mentor lecturer was also highlighted. The implication is that mentor lecturers should view student teachers more holistically and offer both personal and professional support during their teaching practice, thus indicating the need for a possible sixth factor, namely the context of a safe and nurturing relationship which may aid teacher identity development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The growing and aging population has created an increased demand for health care, resulting in a need for hundreds of thousands more nurses across the United States. As a result, additional nurse faculty are needed to teach the next generation of nurses. However, nurses who enter the faculty role in academia often come from various professional backgrounds with different educational preparation that may not equate to success with the tripartite faculty role of teaching, scholarship, and service. As a way to retain and develop novice faculty, mentoring relationships and programs are promoted as an intervention for career and psychosocial development within academia. Mentoring is an interpersonal process built on mutual trust and friendship to create a professional and personal bond. Mentoring relationships can help develop selfconfidence, productivity, and career satisfaction among nurse faculty members. Effective mentoring relationships can ease the transition into academia and provide a vital foundation for productive academic careers. However, the interpersonal process that is the hallmark of mentoring can differ between a mentor and protégé, leading to vast differences in quality and effectiveness. Although mentoring is widely recommended, little is known about the process of mentoring relationships in academia or how novice nurse faculty utilize mentoring to transition into academia. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study is to uncover a theoretical framework that describes how mentoring relationships, as experienced by novice nurse faculty, unfold. Charmaz's method of grounded theory was used to interview full-time novice nurse faculty (N = 21) with three years or less in the faculty role from nursing programs across the United States. The grounded theory theoretical framework, Creating Mentorship Pathways to Navigate Academia captures the process of mentoring as experienced by novice nurse faculty within academia. The theoretical framework contains five main phases as described by novice nurse faculty being assigned a formal mentor, not having mentoring needs met, seeking an informal mentor, connecting with mentor, and doing the work of mentoring. Participants created mentorship pathways through both formal and informal mentoring relationships to navigate academia by acquiring knowledge, meeting expectations, and functioning in the role as a faculty member.

The entrepreneurial journey can be filled with challenges. Having a successful mentorship forsupport and guidance can be crucial for the development of a startup and for learningentrepreneurial skills. For many young entrepreneurs, mentorship is an available alternative.At the same time, there are other options that could present a more tempting course of action.This study has investigated what value young entrepreneurs put into traditional mentorshipand what other alternatives are utilized. Through a study on members from student firmsunder the Swedish organization Ung Företagsamhet, this investigation is pursuing to find outthe value of mentorship. Semi-structured interviews have been constructed with 42 studentsfrom 12 different firms to get a deeper understanding for how these young entrepreneurs thinkwhen they integrate with a mentor, how they act and why, and what kind of methods theyprefer to use.Prior studies are telling us that mentorship is a delicate matter, and even under the rightconditions, mentorship is not always successful. The respondents of this investigation belongto a group of people who spend more time on the internet and on social media than anygeneration before them. The result of this research is indicating that traditional mentorship isstill considered to be a very valuable tool, despite many available options.

This study was designed to understand the experiences of multiracial faculty at a public, four-year university in the United States, including the challenges and supports that may affect their role and responsibilities within academia. Another objective of this research study was to center the voices of multiracial faculty. While there is much research on faculty of color, research specifically on multiracial faculty is limited, indicating an even greater need to explore the experiences of this population. This qualitative, phenomenological study utilized semi-structured interviews with six, multiracial faculty members. This study’s findings have implications for institutional policies and practices regarding faculty culture and environment in order to create a more inclusive and supportive environment on college campuses. Common themes were found throughout the interviews. Participants discussed how they began to understand their multiracial identity as children and how their identity is perceived in their current role as faculty members. Participants also mentioned the importance of mentorship, supportive colleagues and students, and diversity within their departments. These were all indicators for a positive, welcoming departmental climate and culture. Lack of support and diversity created a challenging departmental work environment. Implications for policy and practice are discussed in Chapter Five, including ways to improve the faculty experience for multiracial faculty members.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how reverse mentorship could be used as a tool to foster diversity within male-dominated organisations. This has been done by analysing male- dominated organisations’ perceptions and attitudes towards implementing reverse mentorship. Additionally, the authors investigated potential challenges and success factors with the reverse mentoring model along with the outcomes that the programme could generate. With the forthcoming generational shift, traditional mentorship has started to lose its relevance which has resulted in an increased demand for alternative mentoring models that could be used to utilise the diversity that the shift could contribute with. A qualitative research approach was applied, where the primary data collection process was initiated with ten semi-structured interviews with the male-dominated organisations: Volvo Cars, Volkswagen Group Sverige, and Spot On. Volkswagen Group Sverige represented the perspective of practical experience from their reverse mentoring programme. Volvo Cars and Spot On, on the other hand, contributed with their theoretical perceptions and understanding of the phenomena since they had not implemented the concept yet. The research recognised six themes where the authors could distinguish significant insights that enabled them to draw conclusions and extend the conceptual framework. In particular, the findings generated new perspectives of the challenges with reverse mentorship and how they could be translated into success factors if utilising them in an efficient manner. Consequently, a reverse mentoring programme could derive positive outcomes for the individual as well as for the organisation as a whole. The findings and analysis further indicated that the concept could be used as a tool to foster diversity, not only within male-dominated organisations but also within other organisations, as diversity is an everlasting topic.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine relationship of the distinct factors to PK-12 teacher retention in one Midwest school district. This study was an examination of multiple factors, including work environment, fit, compensation and benefits, leadership, performance management system, peer support and mentoring, that contributed to the retention of PK-12 teachers with different levels of education, certifications, experience, career plans, and military affiliation. The questions on the Teacher Retention Survey used a Likert-type scale to measure teacher perceptions about retention factors to address 8 research questions. For this study, I surveyed the population of 704 current PK-12 teachers in a public unified school district located in central Kansas using a non-random sample method. The unified school district is comprised of 14 elementary schools (grades PK-5), two middle schools (grades 6-8), and one high school (grades 9-12). The unified school district is located adjacent to a large U.S. Army installation and supports a culturally diverse educational environment with a majority of the district’s students being military-connected in some way. The survey was administered at the beginning of the 2019-2020 academic school year and resulted in 210 usable surveys collected with a 29.8% return rate. The results of the study showed that there were differences in how PK-12 teachers perceived the 6 dimensions of the Teacher Retention Survey depending on demographic groupings. Results indicated that there were differences in how teachers perceived fit, the evaluation process, and mentorship. There were also differences in how teachers perceived leadership and the evaluation process depending on gender. Teachers’ education level appeared to affect perceptions of the work environment and fit, and certification appeared to influence how teachers viewed leadership and the evaluation process. Teachers’ career plans seemed to influence perceptions of the evaluation process and mentorship. Military affiliation and teachers’ experiences of working in multiple schools or districts did not appear to affect perceptions about retention factors. By identifying factors that contribute to teachers’ decision to remain in the field, school leadership can attempt to make improvements to those factors to prevent voluntary attrition.

Novice teachers face a variety of challenges when they enter the teaching profession. They are confronted with the harsh realities of the teaching profession and are expected to cope with immense demands and responsibilities. Heads of Department are responsible for co- ordinating and providing guidance to novice teachers. However, little is known about the experiences of novice teachers in terms of the support they get from Heads of Department. This study explored novice teachers’ experiences of Head of Department support. Purposively sampling was used to select five novice teachers and four Heads of Department from three primary schools situated in the Tshwane South School District. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The semi-structured interviews were analysed using a thematic data analysis procedure and the documents through content analysis. The findings of the study highlighted similarities in the challenges and the support needs as expressed by the novice teachers and by the Heads of Department. The novice teachers in this study articulated the need for more guidance and mentorship to be provided whereas the Heads of Department stated that due to the demands of the professional task in terms of the multiple roles they play and time constraints, the support they give to the novice teachers is inadequate. The study concluded that both novice teachers and Heads of Department struggled with managing the demands of their profession and novice teachers called for further support and mentorship to be provided on aspects that contributed to their holistic development of teaching abilities and attributes. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

Depression is a debilitating mental health disorder that has the potential to affect an individual's lifespan adversely; adolescents who reside in low-income urban environments are more at risk of developing the disorder. The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto study was to compare depression symptomatology and quality of life rates among emerging adults who enrolled and emerging adults who did not enroll in a mentorship program as an adolescent while in high school. Beck's cognitive model of depression was used as a theoretical foundation to determine how negative schemas are formed in adolescents who show symptoms of depression. The sample consisted of 128 participants from two groups who included emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 30, half of whom enrolled in a Mentorship Program in Northern New Jersey (MPNNJ) while the other half did not enroll in the mentorship program in Northern New Jersey (non-MPNNJ). ANCOVA analyses were used to investigate whether emerging adults from the MPNNJ versus non-MPNNJ reported differences in depression symptoms and quality of life rates while controlling for job satisfaction and substance use. It was concluded that The MPNNJ group reported significantly lower depression symptomatology rates and higher quality of life rates than the non-MPNNNJ while controlling for covariates, job satisfaction and substance use. Study findings provide empirical evidence to support the long-term positive effects of mentorship programs on depression symptomatology and quality of life. Community planners may be able to use study findings to design youth development programs that have long-term beneficial impacts on participants.

Correctional practices in New York State largely support a punishment paradigm, a framework in which men and women are incarcerated to suffer punition, with little consideration given to understanding the causes of criminality or means to rehabilitate the offender. The growing awareness of correctional failures have necessitated efforts to re-evaluate the justice system, with no consensus regarding which rehabilitative methods work. Correctional philosophy and practice provides few substantive opportunities for transformative rehabilitation; therapeutic peer programming to address deficiencies in pro-normative socialization and provide peer support are virtually nonexistent. For many formerly incarcerated men who build successful lives for themselves within supportive communities, a common thread winds through their institutional experience: peer mentoring by fellow incarcerated men through informal and peer-created programming. This study examined the role that social support by incarcerated peer mentor groups within New York State prisons played in resocializing fellow inmates towards normative behavior and character development. Through interviews with formerly incarcerated violent offenders, this study explored the interpersonal mechanisms that encouraged and nurtured rehabilitation. Focusing on the specific organizations to which they belonged, a more thorough understanding was provided of both how peer mentor groups work, and also why they work independently of other socializing influences, such as family. Through transcendental phenomenological analysis, this research revealed several themes within peer-mentorship experience, and examined the value of these programs for correctional programming.

The purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive and descriptive study of the Oregon Mentorship Program. The study examined literature on adult mentorship programs particularly related to education and educational administration, and gathered mentor and protege perceptions on the personal and professional usefulness of program activities and characteristics. The analysis of the data may provide guidance for future formal mentorship programs designed to prepare better beginning administrators in the field of education. Data were gathered utilizing a questionnaire. All participants in the program (77 mentors and 79 proteges) were surveyed with an instrument designed around the follow-up study model. Statistical analyses of the data were based upon 55 mentor and 57 protege respondents. Chi square, mean, t-test, and Kendall's coefficient of concordance were used to determine significant differences among mentors and proteges. Two qualitative methodologies of analysis, phenomenology and development of a category system for analysis which seeks convergence and divergence were also applied to the responses. Major findings of this study were grouped as perceptions, structure, logistics, participant relationships, and demographic. Mentors and proteges had few differences in the way they perceived the mentorship program. Mentors and proteges did not agree on the significance of same/different gender mentor/protege pairings. Age differential between mentors and proteges was also not found to be a significant factor. Structurally, proteges more than mentors felt that directives and guidelines were unsatisfactory. Proteges did not agree that satisfactory year-long goals were established. Logistically, proteges were more likely to come to mentors than mentors to proteges. No significant differences existed in any of the items concerning the participant relationship category: mentors and proteges responded in similar ways to each of the questions. The study recommended future actions to enhance the Oregon Mentorship Program and made recommendations for further research into formal mentorship programs.