Mentors Needed: Predictors of Self-Assessed Mentoring Competence in Agricultural Faculty

Abstract

Despite an overwhelming amount of research in recent years on the importance of mentoring in higher education, little data exists on what factors predict faculty self-evaluations of mentoring competence in agricultural faculty. This is important because as research on mentoring has increased there has been a proliferation of different training programs for faculty in academia to improve mentoring outcomes, with little regard for what variables predict self-perceived mentoring skill. This study used a cross-sectional survey design to collect faculty self-evaluations of mentoring competence from a national sample of agricultural faculty. Regression analysis was used to determine what factors, identified as potentially important from prior research, predicted positive self-evaluations of mentoring competence. Results showed that discipline self-efficacy, feelings of impostorism, average mentoring frequency, and prior mentor training were all significant predictors, while gender was almost significant. The implications of these findings and avenues for future research for mentoring in higher education are discussed.