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1 – 10 of 38The author's purpose is to identify and analyze the progress of proposals and dissertations after mentor–mentee relationships rapidly transitioned to intensive online…
Abstract
Purpose
The author's purpose is to identify and analyze the progress of proposals and dissertations after mentor–mentee relationships rapidly transitioned to intensive online doctoral mentoring as a result of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory pedagogic research design was implemented in 2020 to examine the COVID-19 Dyadic Online Mentoring Intervention, a four-month individualized approach to mentorship. A survey was completed by mentees in an educational leadership cohort that revealed the benefits and drawbacks of technology for learning within online doctoral mentoring contexts. Additional sources of data were published literature, mentor's notes, email exchanges, and scholarly enrichment products.
Findings
Data analysis yielded three themes: (1) mentoring strategies were utilized; (2) the pandemic unsettled reality and (3) personal professional development opportunities were evident. Although life challenges were exacerbated by the pandemic, the online doctoral mentoring intervention met dissertation-related needs and supported academic progress in a Doctorate in Education degree program.
Practical implications
Technology-mediated mentoring during crises involves more than modality changes. Faculty mentors should not be solely responsible for mitigating program and dissertation disruption. Academic cultures must support the adoption of pedagogic innovations like high-quality online doctoral mentoring.
Originality/value
Online doctoral mentoring structures utilizing synchronous and asynchronous technologies can help mentees make academic progress in a crisis, not only in “normal” times.
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Jodie Lynn Brinkmann, Carol Cash and Ted Price
This paper introduces a cognitive coaching and reflection tool to help school leaders build self-efficacy at a time when schools are facing a crisis in leadership. Key…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces a cognitive coaching and reflection tool to help school leaders build self-efficacy at a time when schools are facing a crisis in leadership. Key themes emerged from the data generated as part of a larger study of PK-12 administrators' leadership during the coronavirus pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study is based on phenomenological research methods and uses naturalistic inquiry design.
Findings
The findings consider the building of school leaders' efficacy in crisis management during a pandemic. A total of seven data-driven reflection themes are identified: self-care, professional development (PD), communication, school climate, instruction, parent resources and advocacy.
Research limitations/implications
Investigated using a purposeful, nonrepresentative sample were the perceptions and experiences of PK-12 administrators as they served in their leadership role during the pandemic. Therefore, the results are not generalizable beyond the scope and context for which the research was conducted. An implication of this study is that this tool can be used by coaches working with school leaders and by leaders themselves to increase self-efficacy.
Originality/value
The cognitive coaching and reflection tool could be beneficial in developing leaders' self-awareness and reflection skills, in turn building self-efficacy. Although there are other tools to support leaders' self-awareness and reflection, the effects of the pandemic represent a unique opportunity for examining leader practices to adjust to, prepare for and deal with the impacts of a crisis.
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Janice L. Hutinger and Carol A. Mullen
Faculty study groups offer one means for encouraging teachers to lead other teachers. As a popular staff-development delivery model, faculty study groups can promote…
Abstract
Faculty study groups offer one means for encouraging teachers to lead other teachers. As a popular staff-development delivery model, faculty study groups can promote school success while encouraging a climate of teaching and learning leadership to be fostered. At issue, however, are issues of choice and empowerment with respect to teachers’ readiness to embrace imposed initiatives. This site-based investigation reports teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and disadvantages of the mandated study-group process. Mixed results with respect to compulsory professional development are described in the areas of growth and collegiality, student achievement, emotional support, time restraints, and personality conflicts.
Sadegül Akbaba-Altun, PhD, EdD, is currently an associate professor of Educational Administration at Baskent University, Faculty of Education in Turkey. Dr. Akbaba-Altun's…
Abstract
Sadegül Akbaba-Altun, PhD, EdD, is currently an associate professor of Educational Administration at Baskent University, Faculty of Education in Turkey. Dr. Akbaba-Altun's educational background includes a BSc in Guidance and Counseling and an MSc in Educational Administration and Supervision, both from METU; a PhD in Institute of Social Sciences with an emphasis on Educational Administration and Supervision from Ankara University; and an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction with the emphasis on Elementary Education from the University of Cincinnati. Her research areas include Chaos Theory, Leadership, Integrating Computer Technologies Into Education, and Supervision.
Kat R. McConnell and Rachel Louise Geesa
The purpose of this paper is to investigate mentors' and mentees' perspectives of the mentor role within an education doctoral mentoring program at a mid-sized public institution.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate mentors' and mentees' perspectives of the mentor role within an education doctoral mentoring program at a mid-sized public institution.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from individual interviews with mentors and mentees were collected as part of a larger case study of a doctoral mentoring program. Mentees were doctor of education (EdD) students in their first and second years of the program. Mentors were identified as individuals who graduated from or are further along in the doctoral program. Five (N = 5) mentees and seven (N = 7) mentors participated in interviews, which were then transcribed and coded to identify emergent themes, along with transcripts of presentations given by the mentors.
Findings
Four themes emerged within the data: differentiating support roles, mentoring as a way to identify gaps in doctoral student needs, mentoring as support for doctoral student success and ways to provide suggestions for mentoring program improvement. Results indicated that mentors and mentees viewed the mentor role as being unique from the roles of faculty advisor and dissertation chair. Mentors and mentees alike responded positively to virtual mentoring.
Research limitations/implications
Participation by mentors and mentees was limited to first- and second-year doctoral students; thus, dissertation-stage students' perceptions of mentoring could not be determined. Implications include the value of mentoring in filling the gaps of support for doctoral students and the capability of mentoring programs to be adapted to unexpected circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
This study targets scholar-practitioner students in an EdD program, who are often overlooked by mentoring literature, and distinguishes research between faculty mentoring and mentoring performed by other students/recent graduates. Additionally, the pandemic gave the authors an opportunity to explore adapting mentoring to virtual formats.
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Social constructivism in teacher education highlights the importance of social interaction between preservice teachers (PTs) and their cooperating teachers (mentors) for…
Abstract
Purpose
Social constructivism in teacher education highlights the importance of social interaction between preservice teachers (PTs) and their cooperating teachers (mentors) for effective mentoring. Mentoring relationship between PTs and mentors had to take a different path due to the pandemic when face-to-face education shifted to online education. The purpose of the present study was to explore online mentoring experience from the perspectives of PTs.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology was qualitative. 35 randomly selected PTs were interviewed after the completion of an eight-week online school experience course. Data obtained from focus group interviews were analyzed using pattern coding.
Findings
Overall, the PTs mostly had a positive online mentoring experience. They reported receiving sufficient contextual and technological support when needed with limited professional support. However, they expected their mentors to allocate more time and their university supervisors (USs) to control practicum schools and to provide more online teaching samples and guidelines. They indicated that when they did not receive supports this was entirely due to the pandemic.
Research limitations/implications
This research could inform USs and mentors who coordinate mentoring programs at schools and universities so that they might take an urgent step to restructure mentorship training, putting emphasis on the online aspect. Given the number of the participants, this research is limited in scope.
Originality/value
This research contributes to a body of research that investigates how online mentoring may be more effective. To create positive online mentoring relationships, following suggestions are provided to mentors: providing ongoing online support to PTs to overcome online mentoring challenges, spending an extra hour with PTs for reflection and making use of multiple contexts for PTs' professional ownership.
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Ann Marie Wernick, Jillian Marie Conry and Paige Daniel Ware
This study investigates how debrief conversations unfold during virtual coaching sessions that provide embedded opportunities to practice teaching within a mixed reality…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how debrief conversations unfold during virtual coaching sessions that provide embedded opportunities to practice teaching within a mixed reality simulation (MRS). We examine how teacher and coach topical episodes function (agreeing, explaining, clarifying, probing, recapping, reflecting and suggesting) to activate reflection as part of virtual coaching.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the belief that learning is collaborative and impacts how pre- and in-service teachers construct knowledge, this exploratory case study draws on insights from 15 graduate students (5 pre-service teachers (PSTs) and 10 in-service teachers (ISTs)) who participated in virtual coaching with embedded practice opportunities. Data sources were video recordings and transcripts of 15 virtual coaching sessions, and one-on-one postcoaching interviews. Coding categories were determined through the constant comparative analysis method.
Findings
Findings indicate that an MRS provides an immediate context for reflection, which guided the debrief conversations. Additionally, functions occurred with varying frequency among PSTs and ISTs, and across both groups, probing questions often led directly to reflecting and recapping the shared simulation context.
Research limitations/implications
This study had a small sample (n = 15) and the use of an MRS, while widely used, is not necessarily a scalable practice.
Originality/value
In times of remote teaching, like during corona virus 2019 (COVID-19), opportunities to simulate clinical experiences become vital. With a limited research base, learning how teachers engage with and learn from simulated experiences is a key to creating rich learning opportunities for teachers.
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Lindy Nahmad-Williams and Carol A Taylor
The purpose of this paper is to explore mentoring as a dialogic practice in relation to three themes: identity, fear of being judged and respect. It develops Bokenko and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore mentoring as a dialogic practice in relation to three themes: identity, fear of being judged and respect. It develops Bokenko and Gantt’s (2000) concept of dialogic mentoring to propose a new theorisation of mentoring as a relational, embodied, spatial, affective and ethical practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports on a mentoring project that took place in a UK University which was seeking to enhance its research culture. This project used an innovative methodological approach in which mentor and mentee wrote and shared diary entries as means of building more effective and constructive mentoring experiences, and as a vehicle for reflexively analysing the mentoring process.
Findings
The project outcomes were: first, a deepened appreciation and reflexive evaluation of the role played by diaries and writing in the enactment of dialogic mentoring; second, the development of a theoretical framework to enhance understanding of dialogic mentoring and third, the generation of a dialogic mentoring model encompassing multiple dimensions of the process.
Practical implications
The paper provides insights to support methodological innovation in mentoring practice; it links mentoring practice with theory development to enhance mentor and mentee collaboration and reflexivity; it offers an example of good mentoring practice that could be scaled up within educational institutions wishing to enhance their research culture.
Originality/value
The paper offers, first, a reflexive account of a methodologically innovative mentoring practice to enhance mentoring; and second, it proposes a new theorisation and model of dialogic mentoring practices.
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Brenda Sternquist, Carol A. Finnegan and Zhengyi Chen
China’s economy is transforming at a brisk pace. A partially dismantled command economy and introduction of competition have fueled consumer demand for a greater selection…
Abstract
China’s economy is transforming at a brisk pace. A partially dismantled command economy and introduction of competition have fueled consumer demand for a greater selection of innovative new products in the retail market. The challenge for retail buyers is to adjust their procurement processes to respond to consumer needs in an efficient and effective manner. This study examines factors influencing buyer‐supplier relationships in a transition economy. We present a model to explain the factors driving retail buyer dependence on suppliers. We find that retailer evaluation of supplier credibility mediates the relationship between retailer perceptions of a supplier ability to add value to its business and the ability to achieve its desired goals. In part, this is due to the supplier’s market orientation. Interestingly, guanxi ties have no impact on the retailer perceptions of the supplier credibility, but have a positive affect on retailer dependence on its supplier partners.
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