ALT Professional Mentoring Scheme: Learning and Teaching Focus
One of the key issues identified by participants at the Connecting Legal Ed session in November 2020 was the availability of suitable mentors to support the professional development of colleagues whose focus is learning and teaching as opposed to research, or who seek a balance of teaching and research. In response to this, the Association of Law Teachers is establishing a national network of Legal Education Professional Mentors for its members. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or a mentee or indeed both please contact Caroline Strevens caroline.strevens@port.ac.uk . We welcome all ALT members irrespective of employment status and experience
The following guidelines apply and will be reviewed annually and we will build a set of FAQ as the scheme develops. In addition to guidance and support we aim to evaluate this process with the objective of increasing understanding around promotion based upon teaching and education and to support further community building across Law Teachers.
Guidelines
All communication between mentor and mentee will be confidential. The mentor and mentee will be introduced to each other by email and will be free to make their own arrangements to communicate. We would expect that the relationship would last about 12 months and that there would be approximately 6 (probably online) meetings in that period, which may or may not relate to an academic year.
- Both parties must be fully committed to the aims and show mutual respect and understanding throughout.
- Mentees understand that is their responsibility to lead the process and to identify clearly what they want out of the process.
- Have regular 1:1 meetings as mutually agreed.
- Establish trust with honest discussions.
- Make note of what works and what doesn’t—what is useful for some mentors and mentees may not be for others.
- Agree topics for discussion
- Be proactive in suggesting change and enhancement to this process
- Discuss important network and contact opportunities.
In order to assist an optimally effective scheme and assure mutual understanding of what is involved, we refer both mentors and mentees to this resource, kindly made available by Kay Guccione of Glasgow Caledonian University: Starter Pack for Mentors. We are keen to develop this scheme and would ask parties to also look at the Peer Dialogue resources here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/academy/connect/peerdialogue
- If you would like to be a mentor, please let us know whether there is any particular group of people you feel would be most appropriate for you to work with (or not).
- If you would like to receive mentoring, you should be a member of the Association of Law Teachers. Please let us know what goal you seek to achieve with the help of mentoring. Please also let us know if there is any particular group of people you feel would be most appropriate (or not). That will help us to identify a suitable mentor to work with you.
Caroline Strevens, Nigel Duncan
Mark O’Brien, Joan Upson