Mentoring

ELNET facilitates mentoring for educational leadership faculty, including tips for preparing your dossier, helping you prioritize and determine focus of EL activities, and by simply making connections with other EL faculty at UBC! We are keen for you to feel supported and connected in your EL career at UBC. If you are interested in being mentored, please send an email to our mentoring team and we will find a wonderful mentor to match you with.

We’re Seeking New Mentors!
ELNET is looking for experienced faculty members who wish to assist junior faculty looking for feedback on their teaching dossier and more in general, for advice as they transition to new roles or  go through their promotion and tenure. Contact the team for more information.

Why Mentoring?

Effective mentoring is a common characteristic of successful faculty careers. It provides a number of general benefits, including:

• Enhanced professional well-being of all faculty involved;
• Supporting new and under-represented faculty;
• helping with career focus and inspiration;
• Wider benefits to the institution, especially retention, positive working environment, and community building.

Why for Educational Leadership Stream Faculty?

Mentorship provides other specific benefits for teaching stream faculty, who are currently a minority among full-time faculty at UBCV and UBCO. These benefits include:

• Clarity on the missions and roles of teaching stream faculty;
• Consultation on teaching and learning-related pedagogy;
• Advice on professional development and career progress expectations;
• Building community among teaching-dedicated faculty.

The ELNET Mentoring Philosophy

The ELNET (Educational Leadership Network Engagement Team) mentoring framework is based on the following principles:

Flexibility: mentorships can take a number of forms. We don’t impose a single model on these relationships.

Specialization: we do not expect any single person to possess all the expertise or insights required in any mentor relationship. Therefore, mentorships focus on specific areas of expertise and lived experience, rather than generalized or “one size fits all” knowledge.

Preferences: mentorships accommodate the personal and professional wishes of the partners (mentors and mentees) involved with respect to subject matter and frequency and form of contact.

Reciprocity: all partners in a relationship can derive value from the mentorship.

Ownership: Educational leadership and teaching faculty gain a sense of community and empowerment not as passive recipients of mentoring but by taking responsibility for their career development in partnership with others.

The ELNET Mentoring Advantage

The ELNET mentoring framework is intended to complement existing university and faculty mentorship efforts by facilitating the mentoring of Educational Leadership faculty on teaching, professional development, and progression through the ranks. Specifically, the ELNET mentoring framework can offer supplementary mentorship resources in the following areas:

• The first years at UBC for new Educational Leadership stream faculty;
• Promotion to Associat3 professor of Teaching (materials and expectations);
• Promotion to Professor of Teaching (materials and expectations);
• Teaching dossier development;
• Educational Leadership development (definition and expectations);
• Interpersonal and professional relations (navigating contention and confusion about the rank);
• Work/life balance and Instructor teaching responsibilities;
• Promotion of teaching and learning pedagogy, technique, and curriculum development;
• Scholarship of teaching and learning, grant applications, publication of research.

ELNET Mentoring Framework Guidelines

We welcome faculty wanting to have a mentor and have the possibility to receive one-on-one confidential support and guidance as they transition to new roles, reappointment, tenure and promotion process or changes in their work/life balance.

 Contact the ELNET Mentorship Coordinators for more information about the ELNET mentoring framework.

Partnership Models

There are a number of possible mentorship models. At ELNet we provide informal one-on-one dyadic partnerships, which are based on clear expectations. Other types of mentoring models may work best for you. Consider whether more formal one-on-one mentoring, group-to-group mentoring between one or more mentors and a number of protégés or networking events where multiple mentors work as a team can provide more effective to your needs. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss possible options.

Role of the Mentee(s) or Protégé(s)

• Communicate mentoring goals with mentoring partners;
• Reflect on ways mentoring partners could help your professional development and career advancement goals;
• Reflect on ways mentoring partners could help your teaching practice;
• Recognize the time constraints of mentoring partners;
• Take responsibility: proactively seek input and advice from mentoring partners when needed;
• Follow through on referrals and offers of networking connections from mentors;

Role of the Mentor(s)

• Reach out and coordinate the first meeting once the mentee has been paired with you
• Be prepared to be an advisor, role model, coach and advocate;
• Share institutional information and teaching career experiences with mentoring partner;
• Listen actively and without judgment to what is said and how it is said;
• Expressive positive expectations through the mentoring process;
• Ask open and supportive questions;
• Offer constructive feedback on teaching materials, dossiers and CVs;
• Be accessible and available while clearly communicate time availability;
• Support and facilitate networking and brokering.

Measuring Success

• Members of a mentoring partnership should review the relationship on a regular basis to ensure it is providing value to all partners: a mentoring partnership is not a life sentence!
• Establish the objectives and desired outcomes of the mentoring partnership.

Printable Version

You can find a printable version of these guidelines below.