Mentoring the new academic: Conversations for
individual and university development

There are many challenges confronting the new academic upon entering the University context (Barkhuizen, 2002; Cawyer, Simonds, and David, 2002). Additionally in the broader context of tertiary teaching, there are ongoing discussions about critically reflective teaching practice (Brookfield, 1995), the importance of student centred teaching (Prosser and Trigwell, 2003; Ramsden, 2003), and relationships between university teaching and research (Brew, 2003; Robertson and Bond, 2001).

In our study, we were concerned with how the processes of socialisation conversations contributed to understandings about the teacher role within the broader organisational and environmental contexts. We support the view that if socialisation is left to the newcomer, the organisation risks the staff member not reaching their full potential as a scholar and teaching colleague (Cawyer and Friedrich, 1998). This paper looks at how a conversational framework can be used to socialise the new academic, assist with day- to-day teaching, and draw out tacit knowledge. We suggest that these processes can also be used to foster developments in the broader university context.