Laurence B. McCullough (Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Baylor) writes in:
As a retired professor, I follow your blog to keep up with what is happening in the world of philosophy. I spent my career as a medical educator. In the Baylor Center we (Baruch Brody and I, then the only two senior faculty) had a program for mentoring for all junior faculty. We met with our colleagues regularly both formally and informally, read their work, advised them on academic matters, etc.
We called what we did mentoring for success. For example, Baruch and I mentored a junior colleague who followed Baruch as Director of our Center and therefore as my boss before I retired. This is common, and a point of considerable pride, in the world of medical education.
I am struck as I follow the postings on your blog by the absence of mention or mentorship. I benefitted from mentoring when I was junior faculty, especially from a philosophy colleague at Texas A&M (where I was on medical and philosophy faculties and my first position). I get the sense that many of our colleagues whose comments you post have no mentoring. Perhaps mentoring – the absence of it, when it helps, when it does not help – would make a good topic for your blog.
This is an excellent query, and I'm thinking of running a short series on the topic. But, before I move forward with that, I'd like to ask the Cocoon's readers a few questions:
- If you are a current or recent graduate student, what kind of mentoring are you receiving (viz. research, teaching, professionalization, the job market, etc.) have you received or are you receiving? Do you think the mentoring you've received is appropriate/adequate? Why/why not?
- If you are or recently were a junior faculty member (e.g. a postdoc, TT faculty, non-TT faculty, etc.), what kind of mentoring have you received or are you receiving? Do you consider it appropriate/adequate? Why/why not?
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