Supporting mentoring for teaching in a research-intensive university: identifying contradictions in mentors’ experiences to inform change

This paper explores some of the contradictions in mentoring established to support the development of teaching as part of an AdvanceHE-accredited Professional Recognition Scheme, and through exploring these contradictions proposes new ways of thinking about mentoring to support teaching. It draws on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2001) to generate and analyse qualitative data from teaching mentors, and their departmental education development leads, who support the mentoring for teaching.
The research was undertaken by a community of academic developers who, while dispersed across departments, share a commitment to the value of mentoring to support academics’ learning about teaching. Previous research on new academics’ induction experiences (Mathieson et al. 2023) found mentoring was highly valued, but uneven in its implementation and effectiveness, meaning that these valuable learning relationships were not accessible to all. The purpose of this study was to better understand the structural dynamics and cultural practices that were shaping teaching mentoring that were resulting in unevenness in mentoring experiences. Our intention was to use this understanding to improve support for teaching mentoring across the university.