Three School of Education faculty members shared their expertise on advising and mentoring graduate students from diverse communities at a World Education Research Association (WERA) meeting in Singapore last month.
Brian Burt, Ain Grooms, and Mollie McQuillan presented their insights, entitled, “Advising and Research Preparation (Re)Imagined: Promising Practices for Mentoring Graduate Students Holding Diverse Identities,” at the conference. All three are faculty members in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Burt is an associate professor; Grooms and McQuillan are assistant professors.
The presenters note that while advising and research supervision of graduate students is often a key responsibility of faculty in higher education, many have received no formal training in these areas.
“More so, there is often no formal training on how to advise and supervise graduate students holding a diverse array of intersectional identities,” they said.
The presentation, which included audience engagement, offered several strategies for success in graduate student mentoring. Those strategies included implementing team-based learning environments, taking a holistic, humanizing perspective on students’ work and growth, collaborative research and writing, and supporting student-directed leadership opportunities.