Abstract
Abstract : There has been worldwide concern about the under-representation of women in senior leadership positions in most industries. Globally, higher education has been historically for the privileged societies and a world dominated by men. The need to advance more women leaders in higher education and throughout the workforce is thus important. In a bid to promote and accelerate career progression of fellow aspirant female colleagues and in order to bridge the gap that exists between men and women in senior leadership positions, the University of Johannesburg has been implementing the Accelerated Academic Mentoring Programme (AAMP). This study focused on senior female academics’ experiences of mentoring aspirant female colleagues’ career progression within the University of Johannesburg’s AAMP. The aim of the study was to explore how senior female academics mentor aspirant female colleagues’ career progression at UJ, to understand their experiences and explore the value of senior female academics mentoring aspirant female colleagues’ career progression. The theoretical framework that underpinned the study was transformative educational leadership. This study adopted a transformative research paradigm. A qualitative research approach located in a phenomenological design was used for data collection and interpretation, centred on one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Seven senior female academics within the AAMP from the University of Johannesburg were purposefully selected for the study. Qualitative content analysis techniques were used for analysing the data. Research quality was achieved by providing an audit trail, keeping a reflexive journal and writing thick descriptions. The study revealed that the benefits of mentorship within the AAMP were facilitation of career progression, empowerment of mentees and provision of formal support. Qualities of a good mentor were found to be vast institutional knowledge about the organisational system, exhibition of social skills, exhibition of professional skills, exhibition of leadership skills and the ability to give advice. Inadequate training, a heavy sense of responsibility, iii mentor-mentee mismatch, male dominance and mentoring structure came up as the challenges of female mentors within the AAMP. Furthermore, factors such as hope, time management, planning, maturity, race, acceptance, the willingness to learn and competency were found to be capable of affecting the mentoring process. Insights gained from the study led to the following recommendations: (1) Continuation of the AAMP at the University of Johannesburg; (2) inclusion of additional mentor qualities to be part of the AAMP policy guidelines; (3) critical reorganising of training provided for mentors; (4) caution to be taken against mentor-mentee imposition; and (5) motivating and rewarding the good work of the mentors...
M.Ed. (Education Leadership and Management)