Research Information System
21st INGED International ELT Conference, Kayseri, Turkey, 3 - 05 November 2023, pp.11
Abstract
In this collaborative autoethnography (Chang et al., 2016), together with and relying on one
presenter’s (Ufuk) etic perspective and expertise in autoethnographic research, we explore a
faculty member’s (Erdem) mentoring of two doctoral candidates (Elif & Mustafa) as a sight for
dialogic and humanizing teaching and learning activities. Drawing on academic discourse
socialization (ADS; Duff, 2010, 2019) and informed by the moralities of critical pedagogy (Freire,
1972) and Yazan et al.’s (2023) conceptualization and operationalization of doctoral students’
emotional well-being, we scrutinize the impact of having a dialogic and humanizing mentorship
relationship on the mentees’ ADS along with both the mentee’s and the mentor’s emotional
wellbeing. Further, we explore how co-narrating personal/ professional/academic experiences
deconstructs the “mentee vs. mentor” binary through and within a collaborative
autoethnographic research engagement. Against this backdrop, we have been collecting data
primarily through our individual memories, and online correspondence including e-mails, WhatsApp
messages, assignment feedback, and so on. Also, we have been meeting through Zoom to
(re)produce our collective memories along with our critical discussions of our
beliefs/thoughts/emotions about doctoral mentorship. By the time we present our proposed
study, we will have completed the four-month data collection period and will have had the first
round of preliminary narrative and thematic analyses. We will present our findings as individual
narratives and collective themes. We believe that our findings will shed light on how to transform
academic discourses and practices into more humane and dialogical relationships.