STUDY OF FACULTY PROTEGE-MENTOR RELATIONSHIPS AS A METHOD FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN SCHOOLS OF NURSING (COUNSELOR, SUPPORT PERSON).
Contributors: Peabody College For Teachers Of Vanderbilt University.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 85
Subjects: Education, Teacher Training.
Description: The need for college and university faculty members to become better teachers has given rise to a variety of programs and practices collectively known as faculty development. Most of the early examples took the form of workshops, seminars, and orientation sessions for new faculty members. Scant attention or importance has been placed on collegial career-building relationships between experienced and beginning faculty.

In recent years, the term mentor has been used to describe a person who helps another person through informal counseling, intellectual and emotional support, or direct instruction in technique and methodology. Mentor relationships have been formed between faculty and students, in the business world and in various professional fields. The purpose of this study was to determine if faculty protege mentor relationships exist and if they foster faculty development. A descriptive, exploratory study was done involving baccalaureate schools of nursing accredited by the National League of Nursing and belonging to the Southern Regional Education Board. A questionnaire was sent to 275 full-time faculty members in thirty-two schools of nursing.

When all the data were collected, descriptive statistics were used to describe the nature of the group studied. Mann Whitney U Tests were computed to determine any differences between variables concerning the characteristics and qualities of mentors versus support persons.

Analysis of the descriptive data revealed some faculty protege-mentor relationships do exist in baccalaureate schools of nursing in SREB. Statistical analysis comparing those faculty who had mentors and those faculty who had support persons indicated there was no statistical significance between the two groups in terms of faculty development as defined in the study. There was statistical significance at the 0.05 level in terms of support and guidance.

Findings in this study revealed mentor relationships did not increase faculty development defined as being involved in publishing, research, professional organizations, university committees and community service. Faculty mentor relationships do serve an important purpose in helping novice faculty get into the system, become socialized to the socio-political climate of the school, and be given the opportunity to take on tasks formerly delegated to mentors.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-06, Section: A, page: 1600.

Thesis (PH.D.)--PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, 1985.

School code: 0074.