“A Rock for Me in the Difficult Times”: Undergraduate Students’ Qualitative Conceptualization of Mentorship

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Expanding our Understanding of Moral Education (Table 3)

Abstract

Despite widespread understanding of the benefits of mentorship in college, little agreement on what constitutes “mentorship” exists. Most scholars have studied mentorship in context-specific settings and, as a result, relatively few have conducted studies that explore student’s conceptualizations of mentorship more generally. Thus, in this study we use a qualitative thematic analysis to explore how 71 students from multiple highly selective institutions describe mentoring relationships and the influence of those relationships. Students described how mentors provided a stable presence and trustworthy wisdom in the face of the student’s instability. The result of such stability was the formation personal identity, moral development, and spiritual growth. Our findings provide a model for mentoring that is contextually neutral.

Authors

• Theodore F Cockle, Baylor University

• Perry L. Glanzer, Baylor University

• Sarah E. Madsen, Baylor University