“Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice” (Reid, 1993 p.305). Kolb (1984) points out that reflection is an essential element of learning. Schön (1983) suggests that we can engage in reflection either by reflecting-on-action, after the experience, or by reflecting-in-action, during the experience. Reflective practice facilitates learning situations and promotes professionals to continue to learn, grow and develop through their practice (Jarvis, 1992). Daloz (1999) argues that mentorship is a learning journey affected by the social environment where mentor and mentee interact with each other. Therefore, reflective practice is in the context of leading to action and development (McClure, n.d.).
Published in Chapter:
Social Constructivism as a Theoretical Foundation of Cross-Cultural Mentoring for Foreign-Born Faculty
Pi-Chi Han (National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan, Taiwan)
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9531-1.ch015
Abstract
Globalization results in the diffusion of people across geographical boundaries. Over the past twenty years, the number of foreign-born faculty has continued to increase in American universities.. Foreign-born faculty represent a significant labor force in the global academic settings; they bring in diversity, new perspectives, and innovative skills wherever they teach. Research asserts that foreign-born faculty encounter huge cultural change that make their lives tremendously difficult in the host country. Furthermore, studies also suggest that cross-cultural mentoring may serve as a solution to help foreign-born faculty adapt to the host countries.. However, there has been a lack of theoretical justification to conceptualize cross-cultural mentoring. This chapter proposes the theory of social constructivism as the theoretical foundation and suggests an action-reflection practice to help the theory building inquiry and conceptualize cross-cultural mentorship for foreign-born faculty.