Section archive - Mentoring & Supervision

The purpose of this study was to examine the specific needs of students and junior faculty in counseling programs and to provide a glimpse of the mentorship experience through the lens of the mentee. The authors found that both master’s and doctoral level, and junior faculty alike suggested that a mentor should have certain characteristics, such as being approachable, having a personal style of mentoring, being encouraging, and providing clear and direct feedback to the mentee.

This study aimed to identify what mentors observe and record as pertinent towards providing feedback. The participants were 24 mentors. The results revealed that mentors’ observations with both positive and constructive criticisms clustered around three broad dimensions, namely: (1) visual, (2) auditory and (3) conceptual. The findings reveal that the mentors’ constructive criticisms were mainly based around the auditory dimension.

This article explores how the use of a specific mentoring model focusing on the evolution of the relationship between mentor and mentee, may influence the incidence of failure. The authors argue that the findings provide a greater understanding of the dynamics of mentoring relationships. The findings suggest that the causes of toxic mentoring are complex and influenced by factors that include mentor motivation and emotional intelligence.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of administrative interns and mentors at the completion of their experience. The authors were interested to examine the interns' types of activities, and interactions with mentors with a particular focus on the degree to which these were passive or active. The authors argue that the findings reveal that ongoing dialogue is critical among the research team, but also among stakeholders such as the intern, site-based mentor, university supervisor, and instructors about what constitutes active involvement and what specific activities and experiences will most effectively prepare aspiring leaders for contemporary school leadership positions. The authors conclude that many interns reported a sense of completing the internship with compliance and were focused on simply completing time logs and getting in the hours. Hence, they suggest that teacher education programs must move internships from compliance-based activities to meaningful and authentic learning experiences.