Lived Experiences of Women in Academia: Shaping and Reshaping Mentoring and Scholarship

• In Event: 33.063 - Living and Learning in a Global Network: Mentoring, Professional Development, and Leadership

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes
The purpose of this paper is to explore how ways of being, knowing and doing as women have shaped experiences of mentoring in a global collaborative network of women academics called CURVE-Y-FRIENDS (C-Y-F). All of the women in this network work in the field of teacher education and serve in leadership positions constructing knowledge in higher education. Two questions are explored: (1) How have the lived experiences, such as age, career stage, position, experience with technology, and research interest of the women influenced their participation in the global network? (2) To what extent is membership and participation in C-Y-F an experience of mentoring?
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Synergistic leadership theory (Irby, Brown, Duffy, & Trautman, 2002), which provides a female lens to explore women’s ways of leadership and critical feminist theory (Martin, 2009) are used to explore the role of female faculty members as organizational change agents who find spaces to empower and transform themselves professionally.
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
The researchers in C-Y-F uses storing selves as a way of exploring understanding of their world, positionality, and how some processes continually shape professional identities. This is a part of an initial process in which interrogating and by extension understanding past and current experiences of women in academia. In this paper, thematic analysis is used to identify, analyze and report emerging themes in C-Y-F’s existing archival data (Braun & Clarke, 2008; Leedy, 2013). This analytical technique enables deconstruction and (re)construction meaning across existing talk and text.
Data sources/evidence
The data for this paper was based on the work produced from various C-Y-F collaborations which includes existing 13 completed symposium papers presented at AERA conferences in 2012, 2013, 2014; published papers resulting from this work; biographical data from the members of C-Y-F; and existing survey data and narrative data collected during past C-Y-F research.


Findings/Results
C-Y-F’s professional activities primarily revolve around collaborative exchanges with untapped opportunities for mentoring. This is materialized through the use and application of technology in order to connect with each other and construct knowledge. This has resulted in the several publications that describe the experience of participating in C-Y-F, constructing knowledge; deconstructing meaning regarding shared mentorship and re-constructing knowledge of that process. It also affords the members of the group an opportunity to learn the dynamics of working with other women who share similar work styles while providing critical spaces within which members of the group can share a common sense of belonging. This serves to strengthen the professional prospects for women in the group.
Scientific or scholarly significance
The researchers highlight the experiences of women in a global cross-cultural network and contribute to a definition of mentorship for women from varying backgrounds. This study demonstrates how women faculty can be organizational change agents who can transform their professional careers in higher education. The findings are relevant for the retention of women faculty in higher education. Finally, the study provides a space and a way to chart the past development and propose/predict the future growth of C-Y-F.

Authors

• Joyanne Beverly De Four-Babb, UWI School of Business & Applied Studies Ltd (UWI-ROYTEC)

• Anne L. Kern, University of Idaho

• Talia Randa Esnard, The University of the West Indies - St. Augustine

• Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, University of South Florida

• Nilsa Thorsos, National University