Abstract

This issue of Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning includes research from scholars representing the USA (Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas) and Finland. The authors of the five articles included in this volume collectively represent how to successfully mentor in higher education settings. The mentoring relationship has a unique place and role within higher education. The mentoring relationship is vital to the development of communication, relationship, and critical thinking skills and allows mentees to explore their professional identities (Taylor & Neimeyer, 2009; Vespia, 2006). Many times the mentor and mentee have dual relationships in and outside the mentor/mentee relationship. Additionally, the relationship and needs of the mentor and mentee can change as the mentee develops and refines his or her professional identity throughout the course of the mentoring relationship. A review of the articles in this issue illustrates the importance in understanding the role the mentoring relationship has in higher education settings and specific keys to creating a successful relationship and positive growth within the mentee. In the first paper, Examining the Mentoring Relationships of Women Working in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration, Bower and Hums explored the unique mentoring relationship between female intercollegiate athletic administrators and how this relationship facilitated growth and career advancement of the female mentee. In their research, the authors sought to uncover the keys to a successful mentoring relationship between female intercollegiate athletic administrators. With this population, mentoring helped women develop a professional network in a traditionally male-dominated field, allow the mentor to provide suggestions on navigating the profession, and support the mentee through encouragement which led to greater self-confidence in the mentee. Crawford, Randolph, and Yob, in the second article, Theoretical Development, Factorial Validity, and Reliability of the Online Graduate Mentoring Scale, developed a helpful instrument that can be used by mentors of graduate students in order to assist the mentor in assessing the mentoring behaviors and characteristics unique to graduate students. They continue to develop and revise the Online Graduate Mentoring Scale in order to provide an assessment which can be used by mentors of graduate students to identify the key needs and characteristics of their mentee along with providing a means to appropriately evaluate the mentees growth and progress. Understanding the key needs and behaviors of a mentee population leads to more effective mentoring and can strengthen the overall relationship between mentor and mentee. In the third paper, “I Become a Part of the Learning Process”: Mentoring Episodes and Individualized Attention in Graduate Education, Schwartz and Holloway noted that the key to successful mentoring of graduate students in higher education began and ended with the mentoring relationship and significant interactions between mentoring faculty and students. They used the Critical Incident Technique to isolate specific interactions between mentors and their master’s level students. The keys to positive interactions,