Stories of Transformation: Using Personal Narrative to Explore Transformative Experience Among Undergraduate Peer Mentors

• In Event: Learning as Being/Learning as Identity Making

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine what undergraduate peer mentors’ narratives of self-identified transformative experiences reveal about peer mentor learning. Researchers interviewed experienced mentors in a first-year mentoring program at a large, private university about their transformative experiences as mentors. Transformative growth was most often associated with experiences that included (a) unanticipated challenges; (b) cognitive dissonance or disequilibrium; (c) opportunities to connect mentoring and student development theory with actual practice; (d) challenge and support from a mentor figure; and (e) meaningful reflection on experience. Based on these findings, the paper makes recommendations for how educators can design learning environments that support learner transformation.

Authors

• Bryce Douglas Bunting, Brigham Young University

• Stefinee E. Pinnegar, Brigham Young University

• Brice Anders Peterson, Brigham Young University

• Emily Rawlins, Brigham Young University