Lessons Learned about Mentoring Junior Faculty in Higher Education

Abstract

Mentoring junior faculty in higher education is often thought of as an easy task that every tenured facultymember and college administrator thinks they can effectively do. Most tenured faculty think they knowthe "tricks of the trade" because they have successfully gone through the process themselves. Mostadministrators also think they know what to do because they have seen or gained "insight" from viewingthe successful and unsuccessful tenure applicants over the last few years. This "lived experience" oftenured faculty and administrators, however, may not be the current "lived experience" of junior faculty inhigher education today.