The Role Of Collaborative Scholarship In The Mentorship Of Doctoral Students

Abstract

The work of a professor is the “scholarship of teaching” (Boyer, 1990).  The strength of the teaching and learning environment is fostered by a dynamic interplay between the mentor (scholar) and the mentee (student).  Boyer (1990) suggests that in order to be a scholar, one must have “a recognition that knowledge is acquired through research, through synthesis, through practice, and through teaching.” However, as the academy has placed increased emphasis on research productivity as a concrete measure of scholarship, faculty may lose sight of what it means to view teaching as a scholarship. For example, if mentorship collaborations (student/faculty, faculty/faculty) are not viewed as scholarship activities, faculty may limit the amount or depth of student mentorship or peer collaborations to pursue their own research endeavors and thereby compromise the scholarship of teaching. Research is needed to gain an understanding of how faculties view collaborative research in relation to the scholarship of teaching.  The purpose of this paper is to first briefly describe the student-centered mentorship model for doctoral students proposed by Zipp and Olson (2008); second, to address the question, “Should the outcomes associated with this model be recognized as faculty scholarship?”; and third, to present pilot data of faculty perceptions on the role of collaborative scholarship in the mentorship of doctoral students.