Kaye

Building a Community of Practice for Mentoring Participatory Research: A Case Study in Mongolia

Candace Kaye, Ph.D., New Mexico State University, NM, USA

Abstract

Mentoring international educational communities of participatory research brings a myriad opportunities for fostering professional and personal learning and development for all involved. A review of the literature on mentoring in international settings within the practice of participatory research reveals a paucity of studies including (a) reflections from the perspective of both the mentor and the mentee on creating and maintaining mentoring relationships and (b) the use of a theoretically based framework for implementation of a process. This research in progress involves a case study of mentoring in a higher education setting in Mongolia that includes both personal and professional experiences within a participatory research effort using the community of practice paradigm. The paper discusses the development of a sustainable model for mentoring in this setting and offers preliminary findings and conclusions. Specifically, action research-oriented inquiry mediated by a flexible and participatory mentoring program can generate valuable insights for further investigation.

Keywords: mentoring, communities of practice, international participatory research, educational reform, higher education