Understanding Mentorship and Challenges to Develop a Mentoring Philosophy

Purpose: This paper presents the proceedings of the workshop which was conducted for the faculty members to help them form and refine their mentoring philosophy. A one day workshop on mentoring was conducted at our college for the faculty members across the engineering disciplines. The primary objective of this workshop was to help faculty members understand the importance of student mentoring, roles and responsibilities of a mentor, essential communication skills, challenges involved and how to improve the mentor-mentee relationship. They also learnt how to develop a friendly, trusting relationship to enhance social skills and emotional wellbeing of the mentees. Methodology: The workshop focused on understanding mentoring as a multi-disciplinary knowledge system and the complexities that underpin this concept. Teachers need to come out of the limitations of regular practices and interrogate themselves, without which it is just impossible to professionalize the mentoring processes. A set of 8 worksheets were used to help faculty reflect on the various aspects of mentoring and reorient themselves towards a positive mentoring profile. Findings: Teaching and mentoring should go hand in hand. Mentoring is now considered as close to parenting. Mentors are also expected to possess some qualities. Mentoring philosophy is a reflection of a mentor’s personality. Empathy towards student’s issues and perspectives is pivotal to mentoring. Originality: This paper is a report of the workshop conducted for the faculty. Samples of the opinions presented in the feedback sheet form the basis of the findings .