Have patience, young grasshopper. Also, revise your drafts.

September 1, 2013 2:51 PM

I need someone to mentor me as I learn how to mentor.

I'm a PhD student. This year, I'm making the transition away from leading large undergraduate discussion sections (20+ students) and into much more of a mentoring & advising role. I have seven students total, a mix of juniors and seniors. The seniors are writing theses, the juniors are in small "classes" of 2-3 people each that are also oriented around writing longer research papers. I am the sole supervisor of their work - that is, there is no professor above me - and I will also serve as their official academic advisor, although they will be working closely with others as well. I will grade the juniors' work, but not the seniors'. We will be together for the full year.

It is kind of a dream appointment, and I am very excited. Still, it's a new role for me, and I would love any advice you have on how to cultivate a productive relationship with my students. We've received a lot of advice along the lines of "try not to get too invested" and "they are not your friends," which I get, but I'm looking for some positive and specific models to emulate.

If you had a good relationship with your academic mentor, what did they do for you intellectually, emotionally, practically, etc.? For the seniors in particular, do you have advice on how to guide someone through such a demanding and long-term project? (I'm thinking about giving them copies of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird when we first meet in person next week.) I'm not as interested in field-specific teaching suggestions - although I'm in the humanities, if that matters - as much as I am in your thoughts about interpersonal dynamics, possible pitfalls, best practices, etc.

Thank you!

posted by pretentious illiterate to Education (4 answers total)

Be careful about any career tips you give. I have noticed that well-meaning academics often give skewed/uninformed career advice that is based on their own specific and rare experience and is much less cross-applicable than they believe to be the case. Most college students lack the necessary context to be able to understand how to appropriately filter this kind of information.
posted by threeants at 3:05 PM on September 1, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm a bit of a broken record about this, but I think almost all academic questions benefit from some time searching and lurking (and potentially asking) the Chronicle of Higher Education forums. There are many relevant threads on this topic there.

Mentors should find out what the ultimate goals of the student are, and then try to set the student up for success in those while bringing their expertise to the table in suggesting some other possibly unknown options/methods. If also supervising, they should be good managers. Good management requires measured, clear, and immediate feedback; students should not be surprised at the end of the semester/year that their thesis is awful or that it wasn't okay they blew off the readings or that their thesis is so amazing and they were so on top of things that you think they should apply to X scholarship due in one day.
posted by vegartanipla at 5:24 PM on September 1, 2013

Sounds like you're doing tutorial or senior seminar? When I work with students in that kind of situation, I find it important to have frank conversations about what they want out the experience. Some are going to be gunners who may aspire to prizes/grad school/etc. Some are doing it because they just thought it would be fun to read a single author/theme/genre for a year. Some have no idea why they're doing this and will change their mind 873 times. That knowledge will help you figure out how hard to push, and what they might need from you (and ask them, too). I think that good mentors help the student identify what they need, and then provide it. So some of my students need me to flog them about deadlines; others need to talk things out endlessly when they're getting started, but once they're focused they don't need much supervision. Some need to be handed a starting text and can go from there. Set clear boundaries and shedules with them at the start (you will look at only x number of pages at a time, or that they have to move onto a new section after x number of rewrites, etc). And most of all, remember that it's their growth process (this will help you stay patient during the 873 topic changes), be patient, and keep them moving forward. Have fun!
posted by TwoStride at 5:27 PM on September 1, 2013

Finding myself in both formal and informal mentoring roles at work (non academic) every now and then and the main take away for me is that you will have people who just don't listen/do what they need to do to achieve what they say they want to achieve even though you spell it out clearly for them. Generally these people don't want to be there but may or may not have realised that. The next thing you know they resign to become a ski instructor or something like that. The ones who don't realise for a while take up a completely disproportionate amount of your time..I now refuse to act as formal mentor because I don't have time to deal with this group of people. Now I just identify people on my teams and make time for them if asked or just make sure they can do work that allows them to develop further setting them up to succeed in these tasks.

So realise that some of your students will not be receptive or will expect or need significantly more input than whatever time allocation you have for each student. These are all adults so do not feel bad about treating this as a professional service. Be very clear about how much input they can expect and under what conditions. When do they need to submit work to you in order to gain feedback, how many versions will you look at and how many times will you meet and what if any less formal communications are you willing to have with them..
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:15 AM on September 2, 2013