Roles of Mentoring for Novice Athletic Training Faculty Members
Mentorship is a valuable resource for athletic trainers who are transitioning to new roles such as a student, preceptor, or autonomous clinician. While mentorship has been identified as an important component of education, little is known about the role of mentorship during the transition from doctoral student to faculty member during the first several years in academia. Obtain faculty members' perspectives on the role of mentorship as it relates to their experiences as a tenure-track faculty member. Qualitative, phenomenological research. Higher education institutions with Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education-accredited programs. Twelve novice faculty members (9 female, 3 male) and 12 experienced faculty members (3 female, 9 male) participated in this study. We developed and piloted an interview guide designed to gain participants' perspectives on their experiences with and perceptions of mentorship in relation to their faculty roles and responsibilities. Semistructured telephone interviews were completed with each individual and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach, and saturation was obtained. Trustworthiness was established with the use of member checking, multiple-analysts triangulation, and data source triangulation. Two themes emerged regarding roles of mentorship: (1) support and guidance and (2) navigating institutional politics and expectations. Mentors supported novice faculty members in their responsibilities of teaching, research, and service, particularly when mentees perceived a weakness in 1 area. Mentors also helped novice faculty members navigate the tenure and promotion process and politics of their institution. Mentorship appears to be an important mechanism of support for novice faculty members as they transition to their tenure-track faculty roles. Mentorship appears to be particularly valuable when there is a perceived lack of preparation for 1 aspect of a faculty position. Novice faculty members should seek out mentors within and beyond their institution for support.Context:
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INTRODUCTION
Mentorship is a relationship where a less experienced individual (mentee) receives guidance from a more experienced individual (mentor).1 Mentors provide support, guidance, and act as a resource for mentees as they are learning a new role.2,3 Mentors also help mentees become integrated into their organization and profession, promoting retention in the line of work.3–5 Mentorship has been identified as a beneficial experience for athletic trainers at many points in their careers, including students,6,7 preceptors,8,9 and novice clinicians.2 Specifically, mentors help these individuals learn their expectations as they embark on a new experience, in addition to providing ongoing support throughout their careers.2,9
Recent research has also identified the benefits of receiving mentorship during the doctoral preparation process for athletic training faculty members.10 For doctoral students, mentors help them develop skills related to their future academic roles.10 Mentors provide doctoral students opportunities to learn and make autonomous decisions, while still providing support and feedback.10 Although mentorship has been identified as beneficial during doctoral preparation, mentorship has yet to be explored for novice athletic training faculty as they transition to academia. Athletic training educators have identified that novice faculty experience challenges as they transition to faculty roles and responsibilities.11,12 Specifically, novice faculty members describe a lack of preparedness for administrative and service responsibilities, along with balancing all of their faculty roles.11,12 Mentorship eases this transition for academic medicine faculty by helping with research productivity and providing guidance while learning the higher education environment.5
Recently published documents within the profession have also brought attention to the preparation of and support for athletic training faculty members. The National Athletic Trainers' Association's (NATA's) Future Directions in Athletic Training Education,13 published in 2012, called for an analysis of doctoral preparation of athletic trainers, in addition to increased support for new researchers in the profession. Additionally, the NATA's Professional Education in Athletic Training: An Examination of the Professional Degree Level,14 published in 2013, noted: “A transition to professional education at the graduate level would increase the demand for doctorally-trained faculty who are prepared to meet the needs of the academy.”14(p19) These documents identify a need to examine mechanisms for development and support of athletic training faculty members. Considering the positive influences of mentorship throughout athletic training, in addition to the benefits of mentoring for academic medicine faculty,3,5 mentoring may be a useful mechanism for developing and supporting novice faculty members.
Mentorship transcends many levels of athletic training education, and mentoring relationships have benefitted athletic training students,7 preceptors,9 novice clinicians,2 and doctoral students.10 However, the roles of mentoring for novice athletic training faculty have yet to be investigated. To examine this phenomenon, we sought to investigate faculty members' experiences with mentorship. To thoroughly examine this topic, we designed a study addressing several aspects of novice faculty member preparation and mentoring experiences.15 This paper presents the data specific to the research question: what are the roles of mentorship for novice athletic training faculty members? Our focus was the initial transition period for our participants, the time that has been described as stressful and challenging as new faculty are faced with balancing the many aspects of higher education including teaching, scholarly activities, and service to the university and profession.16,17
METHODS
We used a qualitative, phenomenological design to gain understanding of mentors' and mentees' perceptions of mentoring.18 Phenomenology allows for a descriptive analysis of the topic of interest,18 in our case mentoring. In particular, phenomenology examines participants' lived experiences with and perceptions of phenomena18 such as mentoring. By capturing several participants' experiences with mentoring, we can describe what mentoring means and how it occurs in faculty members' lives.19
Participants and Setting
In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of mentoring, aligned with the phenomenological approach,19 we sought both novice and experienced faculty members as participants in our study as a form of source triangulation.20 We used the NATA Foundation research mentor program's guidelines for novice and experienced faculty as a framework for the inclusion criteria (www.natafoundation.org). A novice faculty member was categorized as someone who: (1) completed a doctoral degree, (2) is working in a research/tenure-track capacity, (3) is an academic rank no higher than assistant professor and pretenured at the time of recruitment, (4) has first authorship on a research publication, and (5) is a current certified athletic trainer in good standing. An experienced faculty member meets the above criteria, but is tenured at a rank of associate professor or higher at the time of recruitment.
After obtaining institutional review board approval, we recruited participants using purposeful and snowball sampling techniques.18 We used a snowball sampling technique18 starting with our professional networks to identify individuals who fit the inclusion criteria above. The researchers represent a variety of institution types, backgrounds, and geographical locations; therefore, our broad professional networks fostered a diverse recruitment process. We felt this recruitment strategy would allow for achievement of our purpose, to gain a holistic understanding of faculty development. Participant confidentiality was maintained throughout the process with the use of pseudonyms. Twelve novice faculty members (9 female, 3 male) and 12 experienced faculty members (3 female, 9 male) participated in this study. Participant demographics and pseudonyms are displayed in Table 1.
Instrumentation
We developed 2 semistructured interview guides specifically for this study,1 for novice faculty and 1 for experienced faculty (Table 2). Semistructured interview formats provide a standard guide of open-ended interview questions asked of each participant, while still allowing for flexibility in conversation.19 Semistructured interview formats are used in phenomenological research to provide an open-ended format for discussing the topic of interest with several participants.19 We developed the interview guide based on existing literature related to mentoring3,5,10 and the study objectives. The broader study examined several topics, including doctoral preparation, faculty socialization, and effective mentoring15; however, the interview questions related to the themes presented in this paper were extracted from a larger interview guide. Demographic questions were also asked at the end of each interview.
After development, we piloted the interview guides with 2 experienced and 2 novice faculty members who met the inclusion criteria. In addition, we chose pilot participants who were also qualitative researchers so they could provide feedback on the interview guides. After piloting, we made minor revisions to the interview guides based on pilot participant feedback. Examples of revisions include rewording of questions and adding more probes for certain questions (eg., specifically asking about roles of mentoring in teaching, research, service). Pilot data were not included in the final analysis.
Procedures
Participant recruitment occurred by reaching out to potential participants through e-mail. We e-mailed participants with a brief description of the study and a request to participate, and sent 1 follow-up e-mail if no response was received. One investigator (J.L.B.) completed all telephone interviews with participants. We used 1 investigator to keep consistency with the interviewing process, especially due to the semistructured nature of the interview sessions. Interviews began with a description of the study procedures. Participants then provided verbal consent to participate and be audio recorded. Interviews were audio-recorded on a computer. At the conclusion of the interview guide, participants answered several demographic questions before audio recording ceased. After all interviews were completed, audio files were transcribed verbatim by a professional transcription company. Transcripts were then sent to participants with a request to review the transcript for accuracy and clarity. Participants were welcomed to expand on any portions of the transcript, but were not allowed to change anything. We began data analysis after we received member-checked transcripts back from participants, or 1 month passed without a response. Nine member-checked responses were received from participants, which included additional detail related to their original responses or corrections to unclear audio. No changes to the content of their responses were requested.
Data Analysis
Two investigators independently analyzed interviews using a phenomenological approach as described by Creswell.21 This process began with a global read of transcripts where the researchers noted general thoughts. After this initial read, transcripts were examined again, and significant statements were identified.21 Significant statements were then grouped and labeled into similar themes with descriptions and supporting quotes.21 At this time, each investigator produced a document with summaries of the findings, including themes and specific participant quotes. The investigators compared the 2 documents and discussed any differences. Findings of each investigator were identical; however, organization of themes and supporting categories were slightly different. For example, 1 investigator grouped the categories in the support and guidance theme, whereas the other parsed them out to standalone categories. After discussion, we determined the supporting data were robust enough to leave the areas of teaching, research, and service as standalone categories under the support and guidance theme. At this time of initial data comparison, the investigators also agreed that data saturation had been reached, and no further data needed to be collected.18 Lastly, a third investigator reviewed the results with supporting categories to ensure categories and themes were clearly organized and participants' responses were accurately described.
Trustworthiness was established at several points during the research process. First, the interview guides were developed by multiple researchers and based on existing evidence.20 This, combined with piloting of the interview guides with participants who were also qualitative researchers, established credibility of the instrument.20 Perspectives from mentors and mentees were also garnered, a form of data source triangulation.20 Participants were asked to member check their interview transcripts, ensuring their responses were accurately communicated during the interviews.20 The use of multiple-analysts triangulation reduces bias present in the data analysis process.20 Lastly, we have bracketed the researcher backgrounds and approach to the participant recruitment process, providing transparency in the purposeful sampling technique.19
RESULTS
Two themes with supporting categories emerged from the data related to the role of mentoring (Figure). Mentoring provides guidance and support for pretenured faculty members in the areas of teaching, research, and service. Secondly, mentoring helps faculty members navigate institutional politics and expectations.
Citation: Athletic Training Education Journal 12, 4; 10.4085/1204234
Guidance and Support
Mentors provided guidance and support for mentees in 3 areas of faculty roles and responsibilities, including teaching, research, and service. Mentees typically described how mentors helped them in 1 or 2 key areas where they needed guidance, particularly when they felt like their doctoral preparation lacked in those areas. Additionally, mentors gave advice on how to balance these different faculty responsibilities.
Research
Mentors provided support for mentees as they pursued research interests. Specifically, participants described how mentors provide guidance as novice faculty members tried to navigate professional journals, write grants, and respond to manuscript reviewers. Josh, a mentor, reflected on his interactions in relation to research mentoring:
We talked a lot about funding and funding strategies. We talked about further developing his line of research or area of interest for research. A lot of times just asking questions that maybe you're not comfortable asking what the people that you work with to get just an outside opinion on.
Josh's comments suggest that a mentor is a safe, accessible person to get feedback from when developing a research agenda. Barry, a mentee, shared his thoughts on research mentors and how they have helped him develop as a scholar:
I think for new faculty professionals, having that research mentor is really essential. I think that could well help you establish yourself as a new scholar and a new researcher. I think it helps to give you a better understanding of how to be successful, navigating through abstract submissions, [requests for proposal], manuscripts, writing and revision, submission.
Our participants identified that mentors serve as someone who can provide support and guidance related to the research process, particularly related to the establishment of a successful scholarly record that will lead to success. For our participants, feedback on manuscript preparation, grant writing, and navigating the peer review process were all examples of mentorship in the area of research.
Teaching
Mentors also helped mentees with teaching, especially with responding to student evaluations and providing feedback on classroom teaching. Mentors generally spoke of mentoring in the area of teaching more than mentees. Brad described how he reaches out as a mentor to novice faculty in his institution, particularly to discuss teaching evaluations:
Maybe some examples for teaching would be to sit with the faculty member after teaching evaluations have come in and helping the faculty member interpret objective data from student evaluations, learn from and grow from open-ended comments that students are offering. I think that's a really important activity in mentoring.
Dave described how he supported teaching by serving as a resource to novice faculty, and he noted additional areas of mentoring that may be helpful for developing their teaching:
The level of mentorship is really just more of a sounding board than anything. I think from looking back in my experiences, I think 1 area that probably would be beneficial is actually more frequent classroom observation to allow for specific feedback.
Josh, another experienced faculty member, described how mentoring helps support faculty members new to teaching, particularly if they did not get much experience teaching in their doctoral program: “I think mentoring plays a critical role in the management of research and teaching and is critical aspect in terms of filling the gaps that you don't get from those doctoral programs.” Louisa, a novice faculty member, made a similar statement related to teaching: “If people don't have experiences teaching as doctoral students, if they don't have that experience, they absolutely need mentorship in teaching.” Mentors were necessary to guide new faculty members as they also engage in teaching responsibilities associated with their new roles. Particularly, mentors provided guidance by observing classroom interactions, interpreting teaching evaluations, and giving advice on balancing teaching with other expectations. These were viewed as important especially when doctoral experiences may be deficient in teaching experiences.
Service
Related to service, mentors helped mentees understand how to identify and select good service opportunities, in addition to learning how to balance these demands with other faculty responsibilities. Zoe, one of the least experienced participants in the study, described how her mentors guided her related to service and role balancing:
[My mentors] completely helped me out because it showed me a kind of good understanding of how to structure my time, make sure I carve that time for research, and make sure that I can prioritize things and making sure [that I] set out to be on the right committee.
Louisa, another novice faculty member, described that mentors helped her learn how to be more selective with her service obligations:
In terms of service, I definitely think people need mentorship. I got way too involved in service right after I got tenure and around service, and it's a lot of work to, one, learn that I don't have a responsibility to do the service of the entire institution, and I can say no to certain things.
Some mentees also identified how they reach out to mentors for guidance in service and administrative responsibilities. Stacy described:
In my case, I was interested more in the administration and service component, and I wanted someone who I could depend on to say, “Okay, these are committees you want to be on. These are something you want to stay away from. This is what will be good in your tenure process. This is something you need to place for after you get tenured.”
Our participants recognized that mentorship allowed for a better understanding of service responsibilities and how to select these activities as well as potential service activities that best matched their abilities and time commitments.
Navigating the Institution
Participants described that one of the most important benefits of a mentoring relationship is helping new faculty navigate their institutional politics and expectations.
Politics
Both mentors and mentees agreed novice faculty members need to learn the politics and nuances of their institutions to be successful. Participants described that mentors provide a strong mechanism of support in this area. Brad, a mentor, described how mentorship provides “role orientation, it kinda serves as integration to the university, in the department, and the unique nuances and the environment of the university and department here.” Similarly, Dave, another mentor, described: “I think most of the mentoring that I have had experience with is really navigating the politics of the university itself.” Jeff also described this as a priority: “I think my goal with them is really to try to teach them some of those things that are going down anywhere, and a lot of it is just the culture of how things work at this institution.” Duncan, a mentor, elaborated on the need for mentorship in navigating institutional politics:
Knowing how to navigate the—not just the tenure promotion process, but just the intricacies of faculty involvement within a college, within a department, within a university, how to kind of successfully navigate those issues. I don't find it to be as much content or teaching as it is the stuff that's outside of the traditional classroom setting.
Similarly, Allie, a mentor, described the importance of mentorship in understanding different institutional expectations:
[Mentorship is] pivotal. If they want to accept the help and advice, it's all intangible stuff that they don't learn in their doctorate and they just don't teach and which is normal. How to deal with student issues, how to deal with staff at that place, how to politically maneuver through the system is really important, and I think that's pivotal for new faculty to get a handle on. Just the culture of the place because every culture is different, and so I think it's pivotal.
From a mentee's perspective, Karen also recognized the role of mentorship in navigating institutional politics in her experiences:
[My mentor] has helped me understand what are the politics of this university, and that's always very important. Who do you to get along with, and who do you need to know? And so I have a university mentor that I go to, and he has helped me through all of the politics, so the logistics of my current position.
Both mentors and mentees clearly articulated the value of mentors when helping new faculty understand their work environment and how to function within the culture of their institution.
Expectations
In addition to navigating institutional politics, participants described how mentorship was helpful when trying to determine institution-specific expectations, particularly for promotion and tenure. Andrea, a mentee, described that her mentor provided guidance about how to prioritize her time in relation to institutional expectations:
[My mentor] is also very good at helping to navigate when to do something and when not. So with the tenure and promotions interests, is X worth my time? And she will say, “No, that's not going to get you anywhere. You already have 19 things on your vita that are going to support that. This is a more important focus right now. Go towards that.” So she is very good at navigating the system, if you will.
Experienced investigators also described that mentoring is important when helping novice faculty understand the bigger picture of faculty roles and responsibilities. Jerry described:
I think [mentorship is] a big deal. I mean, the junior faculty member not only has to know what to do in terms of their own scholarship agenda and teaching, but they have to know how to navigate the straightforward way to put it, the politics of the department, the ins and outs of the administrative portion of university life, and so forth. So I think it's pretty important.
His comments suggest this mentorship provided mentees insight on the breadth of higher education institution specific topics, including administration, research, teaching, and departmental politics. Although participants described the value of mentorship in navigating institutional politics and expectations, several of them noted that a mentor within their institution best provided this type of guidance. Arthur stated:
I'm not really sure it will be realistic for someone from a different university to give me very sound advice on going through that process at your institution. I think that's better for someone that's at your institution.
Participants generally believed mentors within their institutions could provide the best insight of institution-specific culture.
DISCUSSION
Athletic training faculty have an important role in the professional and postprofessional education of students.12 The success of athletic training faculty members directly impacts the quality of the education of students.12 Faculty members should be competent in both the content and delivery of athletic training knowledge and skills.11,22 Likewise, producing scholarship is important to continue moving the athletic training profession forward.23–26 Therefore, development and ongoing support of faculty members is a matter of importance to the athletic training profession. Like previous research,5,11 our participants described how mentorship is important for novice faculty members as they transition to their faculty roles. Mentors serve as a resource for novice faculty as they learn to succeed in and balance their responsibilities, in addition to navigating institutional expectations. Junior faculty who receive mentorship are more likely to be successful in their faculty roles. That is because they are often guided by their mentors and have a better awareness of the roles that they are engaged in.27,28
Support and Guidance
Our participants described how mentors provide guidance and support to novice faculty as they navigate their faculty responsibilities. This theme of guidance and support has been previously identified as a key role of mentorship as an individual transitions to a new role such as preceptor,8,9,29 student,7,30 or clinician.2 In our study, mentors supported mentees in the areas of teaching, research, and service. This guidance and support was particularly helpful when participants perceived a gap in doctoral preparation in a certain area. In these cases, mentorship assisted faculty with professional development for these deficit areas, much like it does for doctoral students.10
Research
Related to research, participants described how mentors guide mentees in grant writing, journal selection, and responding to manuscript reviewer comments. Similarly, Straus et al3 found mentoring helps with research productivity and grant writing of academic medicine faculty members. For these participants, mentors also had a key role in reviewing grant applications before submission. Additionally, 52% of novice faculty participating in a formal mentoring program contributed increased research productivity to their participation.27
Authors10,11 have generally described how novice faculty are most prepared in research compared to other areas due to the typical doctoral training they experience. Despite the general preparedness of faculty to conduct research, our findings suggest additional mentorship is still needed in this area. Novice faculty members should be encouraged to identify a mentor to support their scholarly endeavors. Participants in our study described how they often sought out research mentors beyond their institutions because they had similar research interests. Straus et al3 echoed this point, suggesting novice faculty identify a scientific mentor, which may or may not need to be at the mentee's institution. Athletic training faculty may consider participating in the formal mentoring opportunity available in the profession, such as the NATA Foundation research mentor program (www.natafoundation.org), to identify mentors with similar research interests. Faculty members can also informally seek out individuals with similar research agendas to develop collaborative relationships and mentoring.
Teaching
In addition to research, our participants described how mentors also helped guide their teaching practices. The systematic review of mentorship in academic medicine faculty by Sambunjak et al5 also identified this theme. In our study, mentors discussed mentored teaching more extensively than mentees. Specifically, they discussed the value of teaching observations and helping new faculty navigate students' teaching evaluations. It is unknown why mentees did not extensively describe the value of mentored teaching—perhaps because they did not identify it as a deficit area or they did not perceive it as valuable. Craig22 found that athletic training educators with a master's degree often lacked competency in teaching methodology and are unaware of this lack of knowledge. While the population and landscape of athletic training education was different compared to our study, we should still consider that a gap in instructional knowledge may still be present in our doctorally trained educators.
Mentors in our study spoke to the value of mentored teaching, as have previous authors.10,11 Teaching has also been identified as an area that may not be emphasized enough in doctoral preparation.10,11 Considering teaching is typically a large portion of faculty responsibilities and the evaluation process,10 depending on the institution,12,31 novice faculty should seek out mentored teaching, and experienced faculty should reach out to support novice faculty in this area.
Service
Novice faculty in our study strongly identified the need for mentorship in the area of service. Many new faculty described becoming overwhelmed with service obligations in their first years in the professoriate, making it difficult to balance their other responsibilities. Authors11,12 have noted that athletic training faculty members often have extensive administrative and service responsibilities compared to traditional academics. These service responsibilities are often different than other tenure-track faculty positions, making it difficult to balance all of their roles and responsibilities.12 Additionally, doctoral students typically have minimal exposure to service and administrative responsibilities during their preparation.10,12
For our participants, mentors helped support novice faculty in the area of service by guiding them toward service opportunities that would carry more weight in the promotion and tenure process. Mentors also helped mentees with professional networking, enhancing their service opportunities at the national level. Straus et al3 previously noted this role of mentoring for academic medicine faculty. Our participants emphasized the value of mentoring novice faculty on how to balance service responsibilities with their other obligations, particularly research. Providing this support and guidance for how to carve out time for research and prioritize time based on tenure and promotion guidelines may be the area where mentors are needed most11 and something that may be difficult to teach during doctoral preparation. Novice faculty members should be encouraged to identify mentors within their institutions to help them prioritize and balance these responsibilities.11 Similarly, mentors beyond the institution can help faculty network throughout the profession to broaden their service involvement.
Navigating Institutional Politics and Expectations
Higher education has been described as a unique environment, unlike most businesses and organizations.24 Tenure-track faculty are expected to meet institutional guidelines to secure their long-term employment, usually in the areas of teaching, research, and service.24 However, the goal of promotion and tenure has also been identified as a moving target, causing much stress on those pursuing this benchmark in academe.11,12 Additionally, many have described promotion and tenure expectations as vague, intangible, and differing significantly between institutions.11,12,24 Our participants echoed these sentiments as they described unclear tenure and promotion guidelines, unwritten university politics, and general difficulty aligning their responsibilities with institutional expectations. Participants described mentoring relationships were particularly valuable in guiding them through these challenges. In academic medicine, mentors have helped mentees “navigate university bureaucracy”3(p137) and helped them make decisions on how to strategically meet tenure and promotion guidelines. Our mentees also described their mentors as critical to navigating institutional politics and expectations.
The challenging nature of navigating the tenure and promotion process speaks to the importance of mentorship during the pretenure years. While doctoral preparation has the potential to better prepare faculty for the responsibilities of teaching, research, and service,10,11 the challenges of institutional politics and unclear expectations are prevalent, yet unique to institutions, making it difficult to prepare doctoral students for navigating these experiences. Many mentors perceived their biggest responsibility as a mentor was helping novice faculty understand the full scope of faculty life. Considering our participants specified that mentors within the institution were necessary for this type of mentorship, these interactions should be facilitated by both novice and experienced faculty. Mentors should be encouraged to reach out to novice faculty and support them during their tenure process, particularly in the first few years at an institution. Likewise, novice faculty should reach out to experienced faculty within their institution to provide guidance on institutional politics and expectations.3 If formal mentoring opportunities are available within a department or university, faculty members should be encouraged to use this resource. Additionally, future research should examine the availability and benefits of formal mentoring programs that exist within institutions.5,32
Orienting novice faculty members to academia can also begin during doctoral education. Faculty advisors can educate their students on the Carnegie classifications of institutions, which generally indicate an institution's emphasis on research and teaching.12,31 Doctoral students should also be mentored on how to ask the right questions during job interviews to gain understanding of employers' expectations.12 Taking the time to educate future faculty members on the landscape of higher education may help their understanding of their expectations and transition into their faculty role.33 Doctoral students should also be encouraged to identify a mentor, or mentors, when they enter their first faculty position as a mechanism of ongoing support.11
LIMITATIONS
While the use of purposeful sampling techniques provided insight regarding our research question, the small, selective sample may limit transferability to a broader population of faculty members. Future research should expand to a larger population of faculty members, including those without a history of publishing. Our focus on the roles of mentoring also did not capture the complexities of the mentorship experience, such as how mentoring relationships form, characteristics of effective mentorship, and potential negative aspects of the mentoring relationship. We also did not collect detailed information regarding faculty responsibilities and formal/informal characteristics of mentoring relationships, which may produce different findings related to this topic. Considering many participants discussed the roles of mentoring in relation to their doctoral preparation, institutional characteristics, and mentoring experiences, future research should investigate these factors in relation to the roles of mentoring. We also did not target a specific institution type, a factor that should be considered more extensively in future research. Lastly, while we identified roles of mentoring from participants' perceptions, we did not determine how this translated into success of the mentee. Future research should consider measuring the effectiveness and other outcomes of mentoring relationships.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on our findings and existing literature, we provide the following recommendations regarding mentorship of novice faculty:
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Novice faculty should self-reflect on their strengths and weaknesses in the tenets of higher education and seek out mentors in area(s) of weakness.
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Novice faculty should seek out mentors within their institutions to help them navigate university politics and expectations and obtain feedback on teaching.
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When seeking a research mentor, faculty should consider identifying an individual with similar research interests, which may often mean seeking someone outside of their institution.3 Use professional networks and resources, such as the NATA Foundation research mentor program, to identify potential mentors.
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Experienced faculty should be aware of the valuable roles of mentoring for novice faculty and attempt to support and mentor these individuals during their doctoral preparation and pretenure years.
CONCLUSIONS
Mentorship appears to provide support and guidance for novice faculty members during their transition to tenure-track faculty roles. Mentorship is particularly valuable in helping novice faculty address perceived lack of preparedness in 1 of their job responsibilities, usually teaching or service more than research. Additionally, mentors help novice faculty navigate the unwritten politics and nuances of the institution and tenure and promotion process. Novice faculty may benefit from seeking mentors within their institution to provide guidance on university-specific expectations and seek experienced faculty with similar research interests beyond their institution to support their scholarly endeavors.
Themes and subthemes for roles of mentoring for novice faculty.
Contributor Notes
Dr Nottingham is currently Assistant Professor in the Athletic Training Program in the Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences at Chapman University.