REVERSE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH MENTORING

DAVID BRENNAN PDST TEAM LEADER & NATIONAL COORDINATOR SMALL SCHOOLS PROJECT

When did reverse mentoring appear?

A successful mentoring relationship is founded on mutual trust, shared values, interests and commitment.

Reverse mentorship is the informal exchange that occurs when more established professionals in a work setting are mentored by new staff. Its inception is accredited to the CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch. In the late 1990s, he acknowledged his own lack of technical expertise. There was a specific need for reform and change to adapt to emerging innovations and particularly technologies. To facilitate change management, he ‘tipped the organisation upside down’. Initially conceived for the transformation of technical skills, it has evolved to a more mutual mentoring practice over time, within different sectors.

What is reverse mentoring?

In a schools context, reverse mentorship seeks to change the dyadic relationship of mentoring into a mutual sharing of ideas and concepts. It formalises the informal reciprocity that has occurred whereby more established professionals in a school are mentored by new appointments or ‘new’ staff. This formal acknowledgment would allow educational institutes to benchmark its implementation. Within schools, there may be a teacher/NQT, temporary teacher, substitute teacher or a student teacher on college placement with a specific digital specialisation who would take on the role of mentor to a more established teacher.

It aligns with the Digital Learning Framework: Dimension: Leadership and Management: Domain 4: Developing Leadership Capacity: Statements of Practice: Critique their practice as leaders and develop their understanding of effective and sustainable leadership and empower staff to take on and carry out leadership roles.

It could be incorporated into a school’s digital learning plan as a specific action and indeed into any area of need and focus within a school, aligning with the LAOS Framework 2022. All parties would benefit and it would allow the mentors the opportunity to develop leadership skills and school organisational knowledge while mentees increase digital content knowledge, technical skills and exposure to new digital pedagogically-aligned tools.

Relationships

Its success is largely dependent on the care taken to build it. It requires investing time to understand the why and the how of the mentoring relationship and commitment of time for ongoing focused interaction and reflection. This requires alignment to the principles (3Cs) of clarity of purpose, trusting and open communication and mutual commitment. Building a successful mentoring relationship is a learned skill that can be developed and sustained for both mentors and mentees.

Structuring

In a traditional mentoring relationship, the responsibility for beginning and sustaining the relationship falls more on the established member of staff. As the relationship deepens, the responsibility evolves and is shared. Its initial success depends heavily on the more experienced member to begin the momentum. Reverse mentoring is similar:

Agree on the purpose of your mentorship: This may be sharing digital skills around digital platforms, digital pedagogicallyaligned content, digital devices, creation of digital resources, digital technologies for special educational needs.

Identify norms for the relationship: This should include how to communicate, when and where to meet, language (using informal terms as opposed to formal hierarchical terms), and importantly, confidentiality. Establish and maintain specific times for contact: Mentoring research reflects that the best meetings are scheduled, yet informal. Informal meetings allow the relationship to deepen through shared personal experiences.

Understand when the reverse mentoring relationship is over: When the initial purpose is met and it’s time to move on, parties can determine whether to allow the relationship to move forward or go on hiatus. Research suggests that it is best if both people are intentional about how it will go forward, and when it will conclude.

David has a B.Ed. (Mary Immaculate College), an MSc. in Leadership and Management (UCD) and an MSc. in eLearning Design and Development (CIT). If you would like to contact David in relation to this article, you can email him to BrennanDavid@outlook.com