Browsing by Subject "Mentors"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Effect of Mentoring in a Corporate Environment
    (2009) Schick, Theodore L; Marchel, Mary Ann; Williams, Julia
    This phenomenological study explores the role of mentoring and its effect on leaders and their leadership development in a corporate environment. Implemented in conjunction with a leadership development program, a group of six junior leaders were assigned a mentor. With both mentors and mentees informed of the expectations, mentoring sessions occurred bi-weekly over a period in excess of 90 days. Following the mentoring period, both mentees and mentors were interviewed as to their experience from a personal and professional leadership development perspective.
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    Growing North Minneapolis: Fostering Youth Leadership and Critical Mentorship Through Intergenerational Work and Community-University Partnerships
    (2020-06) Livstrom, Illana
    Communities of color and low-socioeconomic status are disproportionately impacted by food, energy, and water insecurity (Hoff, 2011). Additionally, these communities have been historically left out of environmental movements and policy making. Thus, it is particularly important to involve youth of marginalized identities in these issues. However, school learning is often disconnected from students’ sociocultural and sociohistorical backgrounds and experiences (Buxton, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2014; Paris & Alim, 2014). Community-based education (CBE) is one way to provide learning experiences contextualized in real-world issues, that happen in socioculturally relevant ways, and that support young people in contributing meaningfully to their lives and communities. In three distinct, but connected studies, this dissertation explores the opportunities and challenges in community-based education; in preparing university mentors for this work, and in developing and sustaining a community-university partnership. The research in this dissertation is situated within the context of Growing North Minneapolis (GNM) - a partnership between the North Minneapolis community and the University of Minnesota (UMN) that runs an urban environmental and agriculture internship program for youth of marginalized identities. First, an explanatory, single embedded case design was used to examine the ways in which community-based education through internships can support youth who are marginalized in traditional educational environments. The experiences of youth in four different garden groups are explored at length. This study highlights the holistic educational opportunities found in community-based environments, particularly bringing attention to the value of intergenerational mentoring and work, diversity in learning communities, and the value of work-based learning. Second, the focus transitions from the youth to the university mentors. Specifically, an explanatory, single case study design was employed to examine the growth in critical mentoring capacity of the university mentors during their community-based mentoring experience and to consider how university mentors can be prepared to work with communities and youth of marginalized identities in socioculturally relevant ways. Findings from this study outline themes in the knowledge and dispositions that university mentors developed during their preparation course and their internship experience. Key recommendations are offered to prepare mentors of dominant and privileged identities for mentoring work with youth and community of marginalized identities. Third, the evolution of the program partnership between the community and the university is explored. A design-based research (DBR) approach was utilized to examine the ways in which community and university knowledge, skills, and perspectives coevolved, clashed and coexisted over the first three years of the partnership. This study details three design iterations, focusing on the interplay of community and university knowledge and skills, challenges, and growth. This study brings attention to the importance of leveraging diverse community and university perspectives, epistemologies, knowledge, skills, resources, and types of capital in harmony to support communities and young people who have been historically underserved and systemically marginalized. Collectively, the three studies featured in this dissertation have important implications for community-based learning for youth of marginalized identities; preparing university mentors of dominant identities for this work; and the opportunities in community-university partnerships to strengthen this work.
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    Working With “Rookies” a case study of science teachers mentors.
    (2010-05) Meagher, Thomas Francis
    To gain insight into the world of mentoring new science teachers it is imperative to examine how a veteran science teacher is influenced through his or her work mentoring a new teacher. The impacts of mentoring new teachers have been extensively researched within the literature, documenting many of the factors that may enhance the teaching abilities of new teachers (Hobson, Ashby, Malderez & Tomlinson, 2008; Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Wang & Odell, 2002). A thorough search of the literature reveals an unbalanced representation of research focusing on the many influences mentoring may bring to a new teacher while ignoring the impact on the mentor. It is when the activity of mentoring a new teacher is examined within the theoretical frame work of social cognitive learning, it is apparent that not only are two individuals participating in working together, but also that research needs to investigate both sides of the relationship. Also, since the mentoring relationship is situated within a community of practice, it becomes important to utilize a situated learning theoretical framework in tandem with social cognitive learning to provide the clearest picture of this dynamic social relationship. This case study seeks to share the impacts experienced by mentors through their work with new teachers and provide balance to the other side of research into the social partnership of mentoring. Five science teachers mentoring new teachers online, through the University of Minnesota's Science Engineering, Math Mentoring Program (STEMMP) and Science Teacher Induction Network (TIN), participated in this study that explores their experiences through a phenomenographic lens and follows an interpretive research approach. Four main themes emerged that identified how science teacher mentors were impacted from mentoring which included: 1) impacts to their teaching practice, 2) perceptions influenced from feedback 3) enhanced reflection and 4) enhancement of self-efficacy. The results of this study also provide a model by which science teacher mentor characteristics can be indentified. This case study has implications for improvement of science teacher mentoring programs and policies for professional support of mentor teachers and their mentees.