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Using multilevel mentoring as a situated learning approach to enhance the professional development of teachers in higher education

Yaw Owusu-Agyeman (Directorate for Institutional Research and Academic Planning, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa)

Journal of Professional Capital and Community

ISSN: 2056-9548

Article publication date: 5 December 2023

Issue publication date: 2 January 2024

310

Abstract

Purpose

Scholarly studies on mentoring have mostly focused on traditional mentor–mentee relationships, with little or no emphasis on how institutionalized mentoring activities that include different pedagogical approaches could be used to enhance the professional development of academics. To address this knowledge gap, this article examines how an institutionalized multilevel mentoring program could be used to enhance the professional development of early-career academics and academics in designated groups in a South African university.

Design/methodology/approach

The data for the study were gathered from 18 mentees and 2 program administrators using semi-structured interviews. The data gathered were assessed by way of thematic analysis that involved a detailed process of identifying, analyzing, organizing, describing and reporting the themes that were developed from the data set.

Findings

The findings revealed that when mentees participate in different mentoring and professional development activities that are structured based on different pedagogies, they can engage in higher-order thinking processes and develop multidisciplinary experiences within an expanded professional learning community. Enabled by the situated learning setting, mentees can negotiate the meaning of their professional practice within a professional community and comprehend the nuanced pedagogical approaches including scaffolding learning used by mentors to shape their career trajectory and guide them to secure promotions.

Originality/value

The current study contributes to the scholarly discourse on situated learning by showing that mentoring could be planned and implemented as a pedagogical endeavor with diverse learning activities and structured as a form of professional development program within a professional community.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the University of the Free State, South Africa.

Since submission of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliations: Yaw Owusu-Agyeman is at the Department of Adult Education and Human Resource Studies, School of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.

Citation

Owusu-Agyeman, Y. (2024), "Using multilevel mentoring as a situated learning approach to enhance the professional development of teachers in higher education", Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-03-2023-0016

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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