Portraits of Mentor-Junior Faculty Relationships: From Power Dynamics to Collaboration

Abstract

This qualitative self-study of the mentoring experiences of three junior faculty members and their mentor addressed the question: How did we negotiate the dynamics of powerlessness and power in our mentor-junior faculty relationships? Using portraiture as the methodology, we created dialogic word “portraits” to illustrate our mentoring processes, based on retrospective reviews of our emails, discussion transcriptions, and free-writes. The portraits were examined for patterns relating to power, powerlessness, and the process of negotiation that involved race, gender, mentor credibility, novice authority, frustration, disagreements, and ultimately, collaboration. While the larger study also addressed the relationships within the institution, this article focuses on the mentoring relationships that supported the junior faculty members’ efforts to write for publication, including this article. The study that is reported in this article is part of a larger investigation that focused on power and powerlessness, as experienced by junior faculty, both in the institution and with the mentor, and the ways these concerns were negotiated, as we found these concepts evidenced repeatedly in the portraits that captured our interactions. The data were used to answer the following question: How did we negotiate the dynamics of powerlessness and power in our mentor-junior faculty relationships?