“Bad Mentor”: Community Perceptions of “Qualified” Mentors in the Tower and the Block

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Mentoring with longevity relies not on formal programs and hired mentors, but in cultivating lasting relationships with an individual the mentee can personally relate to (Author A, 2020). Race, gender, sexuality, and personal traumas connect individuals on a deeper plane, encouraging mentoring pairs to share in their profession and learning through active listening, sharing of lived experiences, and establishing familial ties, which can lead to personal, academic, and professional growth. But how does the conversation change if the mentor is perceived as “bad”? This panel invites the audience to actively interrogate the impact of “bad mentorship” in education to understand how critical mentorships can inform or cause harm within mentoring relationships in schools and the streets.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Mentorship and Mentoring Practices

Chair

• Robin Brandehoff, University of Colorado - Denver

Papers

• Behind the Baton: The Double-Bind of Mentorship, Isolation, and Ethical Care in Secondary Music Education - Andrew Dutch, University of Colorado Denver

• Pain We Inherit and Harm We Pass On: Rethinking Mentorship Through a Holistic Critical Lens - Michael A. Hunt, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Devil Was Never Who They Said It Was: Poetic Inquiry, Mentorship, and the Violence of Institutional Care - Darius Phelps, Cuny

• “Wakey, wakey, biatch!”: Spooky’s Lessons on Critical Mentorship - Robin Brandehoff, University of Colorado - Denver

Session Organizer

• Robin Brandehoff, University of Colorado - Denver

Discussant

• Aaron J. Griffen, DSST Public Schools