ERIC Number: EJ1030346
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0146-9282
EISSN: N/A
The Influence of Mentoring on Developing Leaders: Participants Share Their Perspectives
Augustine-Shaw, Donna; Funk, Elizabeth
Educational Considerations, v41 n1 p19-26 Fall 2013
The experience and reflection of participants of the Kansas Educational Leadership Institute (KELI) program are the focus of this article. Many Kansas superintendents face the challenge of working hundreds of miles from colleagues who wear similar hats and work in comparable roles. Often the closest professional mentors or peers live hours away, making face-to-face collaborative opportunities rare. Many superintendents are simultaneously serving as campus principals and do not have fellow administrators in the district with whom to collaborate. The Kansas Educational Leadership Institute (KELI) is an organization designed to bridge this mentor/mentee gap through a framework of support intended to help novice school leaders grow and thrive. In January 2013, all mentees and mentors in the KELI program received questionnaires and were asked to share perceptions regarding the program of support offered by KELI. Some highlights reported by mentees overwhelmingly noted the helpfulness of face-to-face mentoring as impacting their practice, while mentors consistently affirmed the value of professional training to develop deeper coaching skills. One mentor expressed that the KELI program presented a confidential setting in which new superintendents had an "outside set of eyes and ears to serve as a sounding board" for local district issues and the responsibilities of the new position. The article concludes that the value of the KELI mentoring program, as evidenced in the perceptions of new superintendents and veteran mentors alike, will warrant a strong focus on sustainability.
Descriptors: Mentors, Leadership Training, Educational Administration, Administrator Education, Professional Development, Participant Satisfaction, Institutes (Training Programs), Superintendents, Questionnaires, Participant Characteristics, Organizational Objectives, Trust (Psychology), Educational Environment, Transformational Leadership, Social Networks, Capacity Building, Reflection, Program Effectiveness
Kansas State University, College of Education. 1100 Mid-Campus Drive, 006 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506. Tel: 785-532-5525; Fax: 785-532-7304; e-mail: edcoll@ksu.edu; Web site: http://coe.ksu.edu/EdConsiderations
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Postsecondary Education; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Kansas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A