Led by Neil Ford @NeilJohnFord

Mentoring is increasingly recognized as a high-impact approach to student learning and support (Lochtie and McConnell, 2024), but what about its value in developing staff in higher education? This #LTHEChat will explore our experiences and values in relation to mentoring for staff development in our roles in learning and teaching.

Mentoring is widespread! It is often a formal component of professional development programmes for HE staff (e.g. leadership development programmes). Mentoring can be highly structured and aligned to a specific development goal (such as achieving AdvanceHE Fellowship), or a particular role (for example being an effective programme leader). Mentoring can also be much less formal (e.g. general support for the professional development of the mentee), but what is mentoring and what does it involve?

What is mentoring?

Let’s look at some definitions… 

“Mentoring in the workplace describes a relationship in which a more experienced colleague shares their greater knowledge to support the development of an inexperienced individual. It calls on the skills of questioning, listening, clarifying and reframing that are [also] associated with coaching.” (CIPD, 2024)

It’s interesting that this definition focusses on the mentor being more experienced which could also imply a power difference between the mentor and mentee. How can we reconcile this with peer mentoring that is a relationship between people with similar experience levels, power, or roles? Or with emerging techniques for reverse mentoring that disrupt traditional power imbalances (Gordon, 2022)?

David Clutterbuck offers a less hierarchical definition that focusses on what participants do in a mentoring relationship:

“Mentoring involves primarily listening with empathy, sharing experience (usually mutually), professional friendship, developing insight through reflection, being a sounding board, encouraging”. (Clutterbuck, 2014)

Clutterbuck also highlights that “a single definition of mentoring eludes us and perhaps it always will” (Clutterbuck et al., 2017). The nature of mentoring can therefore vary widely depending on the context, the experience and power differences of the mentor and mentee, whether it is formal or informal, and many other factors… 

What do mentors do?

Perhaps it is more helpful to look at some of the things that mentors do. The role of the mentor can include: 

• working together/ collaborating (for example work shadowing or project work) 
• sharing experiences (storytelling)
• providing a confidential space (impartial listening and supporting without judgement)
• coaching (asking challenging questions to promote learning and develop new perspectives)
• advising (e.g. ‘if I were in your situation…’)
• guiding (sharing knowledge and information)
• sounding board (listen and help develop thoughts and ideas)
• sponsor/ patron (introduction to networks or resources that may benefit the mentee)
• critical friend (develop trust to provide honest and constructive feedback)
• catalyst (motivate or build confidence towards action) 

(adapted from Lawton Smith, 2020)

Mentoring skills and development

This leads us to ask what makes an effective mentor? Listening and questioning are clearly important skills, but more importantly it would be difficult to be an effective mentor without a strong motivation towards supporting others’ development. Like any relationship, self-awareness and empathy are critical in terms of understanding the impact of your actions as a mentor on the mentee (Klasen, 2004). Distinct from coaching, some knowledge or experience of the context are also essential and, depending on the type of mentoring, access to resources and networks that can be shared with the mentee may also be important attributes. I would also add that a strong commitment to developing as a mentor is essential. Like any practice, it is important to reflect on what has worked and what could be done differently to support mentees better. This also raises the question of mentor training and support: how can organizations best support mentors and the development of an effective mentoring culture?

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

My final point for consideration is an emerging awareness of the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education. We should highlight that mentoring can come with privilege, especially in models that include sponsorship or patronage in the role of the mentor (European models tend to focus more on learning and development, whereas North American models may focus more on ‘sponsorship’ (Klasen, 2004)). Whilst mentoring has great potential for sharing social capital, confidence, and lived experience for underrepresented groups, we also need to accept that, unless we are careful about our definitions it may also create privileged and inequitable access to opportunities, resources, and networks. Food for thought…

I’m really looking forward to exploring these ideas and sharing the experiences of the wonderful #LTHEChat community. I hope to see you there!

References

CIPD (2024) Coaching and Mentoring Factsheet. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/coaching-mentoring-factsheet/ (Accessed: 29/10/2024).

Clutterbuck, D. (2014) Everyone Needs a Mentor. 5th edition. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 

Clutterbuck, D., Kochan, F., Lunsford, L., Dominguez, N., and Haddock-Millar, J. (2017) The SAGE Handbook of Mentoring. London: SAGE.

Gordon, P. (2022) Reverse Mentoring: Removing Barriers and Building Belonging in the Workplace. London: Piakus Books

Klasen, N. (2004) Implementing Mentoring Schemes. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Lawton Smith, C. (2020) Executive Leaders Peer Mentoring Handbook. York: AdvanceHE.

Lochtie, D., and McConnell, C. (2024) Student-led peer learning and support. York: AdvanceHE. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/student-led-peer-learning-and-support (Accessed: 29/10/2024).

Author Biography

Neil Ford is a National Teaching Fellow (2024) and Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE. Neil is passionate about the power of peer support for both students and staff in higher education. He is driven by his own experiences as a first-generation student in the late 1990’s and strives to develop inclusive learning communities that can help all learners to develop identity and belonging at the same time as sharing knowledge and good practice.

In his role as a Principal Teaching Fellow (Academic Development) in the Centre for Higher Education Practice (CHEP) at the University of Southampton, Neil focusses on developing networks and communities of practice as an approach to academic development. Emerging work centres on developing peer support for educational leadership roles such as Programme Leads. Neil reflects that many of the approaches successful with students, for example, developing partnership and community, creating opportunities for active learning and practice, and utilising peer support are also highly effective approaches to supporting academics to develop their practice. 

Neil is an active scholar and has authored several peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and conference presentations in the fields of student peer support, student partnership and co-creation, digital learning resources, and programme leadership.