Multifaceted Mentoring Communities: Resisting Assimilation in Mentorship Through Mentee-Initiated Practices

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Mentoring Pathways in Higher Education

Abstract

Research identifies substantial benefits mentorship offers mentees, yet few mentoring programs exist to support women in academia or provide opportunities to challenge the existing culture in traditional higher education. In response to this deficit, this autoethnographic study provides insights into how a Multifaceted Mentoring Community provided access to a breadth of perspectives through diverse mentors that revealed hegemonic structures, presented guidance to resist traditional assimilation, and facilitated a fluidity of roles that challenged traditional norms of power and authority. This Multifaceted Mentoring Community offered an alternative to traditional mentoring and provided a meaningful community of support, which mentees leveraged to become confident scholars.

Authors

• Dea Marx, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Leah Panther, Mercer University