Adaptive Mentoring for Inclusive Quality Education: Meeting Individuals in Transition at Their Point of Need

Abstract

Co-authored by three South African academics working in higher education development, this chapter uses the transition from professional practice to academic contexts as an entry point into a discussion of transitions broadly. We reflect on the role of mentoring in supporting the multiple transitions which dual professionals navigate and what this means for the provision of inclusive, quality education (SDG 4) with a focus on higher education. In reflecting on this Sustainable Development Goal, we approach the topic of mentoring from a critical perspective which allows us to attend to the themes of power, access and equity that it invokes. The body of scholarship on the transition experiences of practitioners into academia has challenged the assumption that professional expertise translates into teaching expertise in the classroom. The opening vignette contextualizes this challenge. The vignette protagonist offers to support an academic colleague and approaches a mentoring expert to explore her guiding principles for mentoring within and beyond the classroom. The dialogue surfaces the need for mentoring that considers the various transitions that dual professionals navigate. We engage critically with international literature on the role and positionality of dual professionals in academia and reflect on selected concepts from this literature to highlight the importance of an adaptive mentoring approach for meeting academics in transition at their point of need. We offer a synthesis of literature on holistic approaches to mentoring, critically reflecting on how they enable inclusive quality education for the benefit of society.

Citation

Bangeni, B., Fourie, C. and Pym, J. (2023), "Adaptive Mentoring for Inclusive Quality Education: Meeting Individuals in Transition at Their Point of Need", Blaj-Ward, L. (Ed.) Mentoring Within and Beyond Academia, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 17-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-565-520231002