2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work-in-progress study aims to propose a preliminary framework for understanding the behavioral, contextual, and structural, factors that contribute to effective faculty-to-faculty mentorship within engineering and the specific impacts of these factors on junior engineering faculty. Although the significance of effective mentorship in higher education is widely acknowledged, there remains a need for greater knowledge of specific practices that contribute to the successful mentorship of these junior faculty. The existing research on faculty-to-faculty mentorship largely emphasizes the importance of individual behaviors taken by the mentor, overlooking the wider contextual and structural elements that impact mentorship outcomes. This body of literature also neglects to examine the unique experiences of junior faculty in the engineering field. We aim to address these gaps in knowledge through the advancement of our framework and provide insights for enhancing the quality and success of faculty mentoring relationships. Ultimately, this work has the potential to improve the mentoring experiences of junior engineering faculty, leading to increased job satisfaction, career outcomes, and well-being within academia.
Our data sample for this work in progress consists of a subset of semi-structured interviews with fifteen junior engineering faculty from various R1 public institutions nationwide. The interviews used a critical incident approach to ask faculty about their experiences with receiving mentorship from a tenured faculty in three different areas: their activities associated with being a faculty member, the social and people aspects of their job as a faculty member, and the influence of one or more of their held identities on how they navigate their job as a faculty member. Using narrative inquiry through thematic analysis, we analyze the data to understand junior faculty’s positive and negative mentorship experiences with faculty-to-faculty mentorship in terms of perceived (1) behaviors their senior faculty mentors enact in their mentoring relationships, (2) contexts and structures that influence their mentoring relationships, and (3) outcomes resulting from their mentoring relationships.
The preliminary results revealed that mentoring behaviors such as candid feedback and tactical advice and contextual factors such as having mutual admiration, common interests outside of work, and shared identities or values between mentor and mentee all contributed to desirable mentorship outcomes (e.g., increased mental health and well-being, positive career outlook). In addition, structural elements, such as whether the mentoring relationship was initiated as part of a formal mentorship program and the power dynamics between mentor and mentee, also had an impact. established expectations, and a focus on the mentee). Findings from this work are expected to offer a valuable resource for universities, engineering units, and faculty members and to provide clear guidance for the development, implementation, and assessment of effective mentoring practices.