A Memoir of Co-Mentoring: The “We” that is “Me”

Source: Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, Volume 18, Issue 2, p. 199–209. (May 2010).

The author's academic journey in learning to mentor and be co-mentored involved three rites of passage.

This reflective essay describes the author's acknowledgement in his most influential co-mentors—former dissertation supervisees and long since colleagues—who helped form the “we” that is him.

The first phase coincided with a constraining time in research and supervision.
The author co-published only a few journal articles and mainly with one mentee.

During his second stage in Toronto, Canada, he experienced an exponential increase in co-publication. This was a natural extension of mutually beneficial working relationships and successful doctoral defenses. Like a trusted friend, a mentor can guide his or her charges as they set out to discover and realize the potential within.

The responsive form of learning in partnership enacted a version of collective action among equals. The author became a collaborative arts-based-educational researcher-mentor: a hyphenated collection of selves.

Since having returned to Australia, the author co-mentors early career academics seeking to publish and use writing as and for their professional development.