2019 Annual Conference

Colleges and Universities

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

The proposed presentation will explore how a cross-cultural mentorship can be used to encourage and foster transformative learning in graduate education. The purpose of this proposed presentation is to explore the influence that power and positionality can have on a mentor-mentee relationship in higher education through a transformative learning perspective.   

Since this proposed presentation will focus on a cross-cultural mentorship in graduate school in higher education from a transformative learning perspective, the target audience is adult educators, learners, and practitioners in adult and higher education, administrators, faculty, instructors, and HROD practitioners, looking to develop a stronger understanding of the relationships that can help foster and guide the transformative learning experience.  

This proposed presentation will focus on the experiences of a mentor and mentee in term of their cross-cultural relationship, attendees will explore how sociocultural identities and positionality influence the mentor/mentee relationship and have a better understanding of how transformative learning is fostered, mentored, and processed between educators and learners in the formal higher educational settings. After attending this presentation, attendees will be able to:
Have a better understanding of the cross-cultural mentorship in graduate education;
Have a better understanding with how power dynamics work within a mentor-mentee relationship; and
Better understand ethical issues within a mentor-mentee relationship.

Transformative learning is one of the major theories used throughout the field of adult education that focuses on adults and how they learn in various socio-educational contexts. Adult educators have expressed the importance of developing authentic environments and relationships in graduate education that are vital to creating opportunities for transformative learning (Cranton, 2006, 2011, 2016; Mezirow, 1991).  There still remains a lack of empirical research and understanding of how adult educators and adult learners collaboratively process transformative learning in graduate education. The purpose of this proposed presentation is to explore an adult educator and adult learners’ experiences collaborating with one another to enhance their understanding of learning narratives that relate to transformative learning in specific contexts.  Within these relationships the exploration of sociocultural identities and positionality provide the mentor and mentee the ability to develop a relationship that forces the issues of context, space, power dynamics, and positionality to be continually reviewed and encourage one to dig deeper into their own thoughts.

The following questions will guide the presentation:

1. How do mentor and mentee develop a caring space together?
2. In what ways do place, power, positionality, process, and practice influence the  mentor/mentee process of transformative learning in higher education?

This proposed presentation will be interactive using PowerPoint and group discussions.  First, we are going to introduce ourselves and explain the purpose of the presentation. Second, we will ask participants about their own experiences of mentorship in graduate school. Third, we will briefly discuss adult education in social context including power dynamics and positionality and transformative learning in higher education.  Forth, we will talk about the methodology of the study, Narrative Case Study. Fifth, findings will be the cases of the educator and the learner with regard to their cross-cultural mentorship and will provide some implications for practicing cross-cultural mentorship.