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The study examines the benefits and potential challenges of the mentoring circle as an innovative approach to mentoring among four cisgendered women faculty situated at 4-year universities in various geographic locations in the United States.

Utilizing collaborative autoethnography, we ask: How can mentoring circles be beneficial for diverse early- and mid-career faculty women in higher education? Given our varying positionalities and the development of our sustained mentoring relationships, we drew on the concepts of intersectionality and sisterhood as a framework to understand our individual and collective experiences in the circle. Through a collaborative autoethnographic design, we examined data from four 3-h online video reflective discussions as well as relevant documents and communication, such as emails and texts.

The power dynamics within the circle, fluidity of its borders and how it provided us with a unique ability to read the world contributed to a sense of community and empowerment that were key factors to the circle's success. We created an inclusive space with a defined purpose where trust, authenticity, reciprocity and the expectation for vulnerability served as the solid foundation for relationships. We became sources of holistic support, sharing advice and resources to support our growth as teachers, scholars and community members within our field and beyond.

Our mentoring circle disrupts conventional mentoring structures and highlights the power of a sustainable circle among diverse women faculty rooted in adaptive, flexible and responsive relationships.

As students increasingly incur debt to finance their undergraduate education, there is heightened concern about the long-term implications of loans on borrowers, especially borrowers from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Drawing upon the concepts of cultural capital and habitus (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977), this research explores how student debt and social class intersect and affect individuals’ trajectory into adulthood. Based on 50 interviews with young adults who incurred $30,000–180,000 in undergraduate debt and who were from varying social classes, the findings are presented in terms of a categorization schema (income level by level of cultural capital) and a conceptual model of borrowing. The results illustrate the inequitable payoff that college and debt can have for borrowers with varying levels of cultural resources, with borrowers from low-income, low cultural capital backgrounds more likely to struggle throughout and after college with their loans.

The purpose of this study is to examine how commercial beekeepers operating in two different nations perceive their role towards their community and society. The realms of role theory will be adopted.

Data among 144 commercial beekeepers operating in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom (UK) were gathered through an online questionnaire. The design of the questionnaire, which allowed extended comments from the participating commercial beekeepers, validated the use of the inductive analysis approach that enabled the emergence of various distinctive themes, and the development of a theoretical framework.

Participants from both New Zealand and UK recognised similar ways of making a positive impact. Moreover, they agreed that their contribution spanned from pollinating fields and orchards, to improving food production and preserving nature. Nevertheless, the two groups also differed in their views, notably, of the degree of knowledge or awareness among stakeholders concerning beekeepers’ contribution.

By using a comparative view of how commercial beekeepers perceive their role vis-à-vis their wider community, this study addresses a call for rethinking the social value added that emanates from entrepreneurial activities, and how such value can affect society. Furthermore, in adopting social role theory, the study proposes a framework where strong associations between the empirical results and the tenets of social role theory are revealed. This framework affords a lens through which food-producing activities aimed at balancing producers’ commercial and environmental imperatives and their relationship with broader societal expectations could be reflected upon.