These days, I have been thinking quite a but about the mentors I have had in my life. I have had many mentors in various settings, serving varied purposed throughout my life. Some have mentored me with the goal of nurturing me into a strong woman, a successful Black person, a spiritual person, an accomplished scholar, a contributor to my discipline, and so on. Although the idea of having one mentor fulfill all of those roles in somewhat appealing to me, I am actually happy to have had a diverse array of mentors over the years. Although the notion of a mentor strikes me as a rather "traditional" concept (going back to older apprenticeship models), I actually think there is an important place for mentors in the realm of contemporary pedagogy. As we think about inspiring and supporting our students to take risks of various sorts as learners, we have the opportunity to be truly great mentors for them--possibly in more ways than one.
4 Comments
Thanks for the insight Natalie! I especially appreciate the point of having multiple mentors. I believe that if you restrain yourself to one mentor, you are limiting yourself to a potential wide array of viewpoints, life experiences, and skills that you may benefit from!
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MarĂa E. Nieves
3/7/2015 03:59:32 am
Nice post Natalie. I think mentors are very important in our lives, and I always love to have the chance of serving as mentor to someone else. I think, as you mentioned, that in the world of contemporary pedagogy there is an opportunity for us to serve as mentors to younger students and I'm really excited to for part of that. We have the opportunity of providing diverse insights and make a positive impact in the lives of others :)
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Ray David
3/8/2015 07:52:06 am
Great post Natalie! I am in complete agreement that mentors are indispensable. They provide incredible insight and help you avoid some of the mistakes they made when they were in your shoes. Additionally, I think mentors provide students/interns/young professionals with something to aspire too. With various mentors, a student can find the qualities that best fit their career desires and incorporate those qualities within themselves.
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jamesbudnick
3/8/2015 12:55:54 pm
Great post Natalie! Your point about "multiple mentors" resonated with me and made me think about how quite possibly everybody that we come into contact with is a mentor. We think of our mentors as being people that we look up to and admire, and by definition, that's what a mentor is. However, we all have friends or colleagues that make mistakes and we learn from their mistakes, so technically they are also mentors in the sense that they are teaching us valuable lessons through their mistakes. Every interaction is a learning experience so every person we meet is, in a way, a mentor.
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GEDI BLOGI am taking a Contemporary Pedagogy, a Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI) course towards the Preparing Future Professoriate (PFP) certificate. In this section of my blog, I will be posting about topics related to innovation in teaching and learning. Archives
April 2015
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