Faculty Perspectives on Doctoral Student Mentoring

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Mentoring College and Graduate Students

Abstract

This study investigated the perspectives of faculty-mentors who provided mentoring to doctoral students who completed the doctoral degree, employing the qualitative research methodology known as phenomenology. Situated in the College of Education of a large research university, the study asked 262 doctoral graduates to nominate faculty who provided mentoring to them. A total of 59 faculty were nominated. Six of the most frequently nominated mentors participated in two semi-structured interviews. The interviews addressed the mentor’s experience of the mentoring endeavor, seeking to gather a description of their lived experience and the meanings they garnered from it. The interviews yielded several shared perspectives on mentoring. Implications for mentoring theory and practice as well as mentor development were described

Author

• Carol A. Burg, National Louis University