With relationship at the centre: Shared mentoring as a transformative experience

Abstract

Abstract This article explores two perspectives of doctoral advisor and student as mentor and mentee whose decade long artistic mentoring relationship reveals a multidirectional flow through which research becomes interconnected and mutually influenced. Duography is used as a narrative methodology that reframes the mentoring relationship through a series of reflections related to authors’ artistic collaborative research experiences. An intergenerational culturally based mural project becomes a springboard for future research in informal learning contexts undertaken by both scholars. Belenky’s (1997b) empowered and relational ways of knowing are values reinforced and sustained through the intersections of mentorship, teaching, and research examined. The mentoring relationship is viewed as a pivotal and generative site for mutual influence informing key components of mentoring potentially useful for others.