Fall 2022, my first semester as a boilermaker, has seen a beehive of activities. I have attended a number of workshops running from general orientation to specific departmental workshops punctuated with mentorship luncheons and dinners. I recount the most recent mentorship luncheon where one of my good professors, assisted by some senior graduate students, facilitated a graduate mentorship luncheon. This meeting brought together mentors and mentees to listen to the report from a recent survey and scaffold any new ideas on graduate student mentorship. The hosts served us a meal that had a touch of a typical local lunch spiced with leafy portions, chicken, and rice; not sure what the other pieces were, but I enjoyed the sumptuous lunch.
The ambiance and ground rules were well articulated even though not verbalized, movement and facial connectivity took center stage in harmonizing these. My greatest takeaway was the openness of faculty mentors who expressed their frustration with the time and lack of motivation. The report indicated that some faculty have as many as nine mentees, whom they have to meet their expectations irrespective of which sub-departments they come from, let alone the lack of instantaneous information they could share at a click. I was amazed at the suggestions of centralizing information about graduate programs, the onboarding process, housing, and other activities that support graduate students.
But this was far from my interest; my intention of attending workshops was to observe the dynamics of interactional webs (Gee, 1999); it was interesting to see how power positioned the mentors and how it shaped and constrained mentees’ contribution to the overall discourse (Rubbin, 2007). Mentees’ contributions were affected by their figured identities, social, cultural, and ideological backgrounds, and self-will and beliefs about expressing themselves before their seniors (Holland et al., 1998). Members of our table whose mentor was present were too careful not to mention what would provoke their mentor. They always sort for affirmation before any further ventilation. I am convinced that situation and power decide how much our identity will be displayed or operationalized. Taking this to the classroom, teachers must redefine their relationships with the students so that everyone will appropriately be positioned and empowered to participate in ensuing classroom discourse.
The event was a big success. I look forward to more workshops to continue scaffolding interactional webs.
A web-like Interaction Patterns
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