ERIC Number: EJ1120332
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 19
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0882-4843
EISSN: N/A
Asserting the Right to Belong: Feminist Co-Mentoring among Graduate Student Women
Godbee, Beth; Novotny, Julia C.
Feminist Teacher: A Journal of the Practices, Theories, and Scholarship of Feminist Teaching, v23 n3 p177-195 Spr 2013
This empirical case study aims to identify how graduate student women mentor each other when tutoring writing and, through doing so, assert their right to belong in the academy. Much existing literature on feminist mentoring emphasizes the need for better mentoring for women, whether in work or school environments, in current or future faculty positions. Across the literature, there is also attention to the role that peer mentoring or co-mentoring plays in providing support for women in higher education. For this study the authors use the method and theory of applied conversation analysis (CA), which allows them to present and closely analyze a case study based on videotaped interactions of two graduate student women of color who met weekly in a campus writing center over several months. This case was recorded as part of a larger study that involved videotaping writing conferences and interviewing writers and tutors about their ongoing relationships and work together. Though the case study participants never explicitly name their collaboration "feminist co-mentoring" (likely because this vocabulary is unfamiliar), they both study feminisms (Chicana and Black feminism) and use the language of co-mentoring (i.e., support, solidarity, caring-for, and power) when describing their collaboration. When analyzing this data, we observed feminist co-mentoring, or two-way (reciprocal and mutual) teaching, learning, and laboring together among many participants of the larger study. These participants (writers and tutors, many of whom are graduate student women) mentor each other through complex writing tasks, including first publications, theses and dissertations, teaching philosophy statements, and job application materials. Through writing, the participants assert their right to belong within their chosen fields, as they also develop as future faculty members.
Descriptors: Case Studies, Graduate Students, Females, Womens Education, Mentors, Tutoring, Writing Instruction, Peer Teaching, Video Technology, Minority Group Students, Interviews, Feminism, Mixed Methods Research, Interpersonal Communication, Discourse Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A