Academic Mentoring As Determinant For Academic Competence Among Teaching Staff In Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Research studies have shown that most young and inexperienced academic members in higher institutions all over the world especially in developing nations required assistance in developing their academic career and enhancing their teaching experiences through mentoring. However, academic mentoring has not been effective in many higher institutions of learning, especially those in the developing world, Nigeria not exempted. With quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study explored mentoring among teaching staff, looking at how both variables determine the academic competence of teaching staff in Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu Lagos. A cross sectional survey of all the schools in Lagos State Polytechnic was carried-out with a sample size of 200. The sampling technique used is purposive sampling. The study used descriptive statistics which include tables, percentages, and graph while Chi-Square was used to analyze the formulated hypothesis. Questionnaire was used as the major research instrument. The data analyzed for this study was from 150 academic staff that their questionnaire were properly filled and submitted and out of this, Chief Lecturers, Principal Lecturers and Senior Lecturers constituted 95 (63%) respondents, who we referred to as Mentor, and others constituted 55(37%), who we referred to as Mentee. This study used theories on mentoring, leadership and career development that relate to the study. The paper focused on three main research questions: measuring the level of awareness, mentoring and competence and formation of mentoring among teaching staff of Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu. Findings from this study showed that teaching staff in Lagos State Polytechnic are very much aware of academic mentoring, and they believed that academic mentoring were developed on the basis of familiarity in research interests. It was also discovered from the review of literature that, the unresponsive attitude of some junior teaching staff, the pressure of administrative duties, unavailability of formal mentor/mentee structures were identified barriers to good mentoring skills among mentors and mentees. Based on these findings, the paper recommended among others that the institution should develop staff through policies on mentoring in Lagos State Polytechnic systems, this will serve as an avenue to groom new generation of competent academic staff, who will build responsible future leaders Keywords: Academic mentoring, grooming, academic competence, teaching staff