Abstract:
The presentation will analyse findings from a pilot reverse mentoring study between staff and undergraduate international students in a law school setting, reflecting in particular on its potential impact on staff and student wellbeing. Reverse mentoring is trialled as an intervention to address challenges associated with international student experiences, as well as challenges for those teaching and supporting international students. Reverse mentoring flips traditional roles on their heads with the student acting as mentor and staff member as mentee with the intention of educating and empowering both sides and acting as a catalyst for positive change. The project aims to assess whether students and staff can successfully engage in a reverse mentoring scheme via which they can learn from one another outside the ‘normal’ classroom setting and which will have a longer-term impact on their experiences. The presentations explores the importance of the relationships we build with students and the impact of those relationships on the wellbeing of both parties. As well as analysing some key findings from the pilot study, the presentation will draw on existing literature relating to wellbeing and examine data gathered from participants to consider the impact of participation in the reverse mentoring project on core themes related to wellbeing including: belonging, community, resilience and failure. As the project partly coincided with the covid-19 pandemic and the sudden and unanticipated “digitalisation” of staff and student relationships, the presentation will also consider the purpose which reverse mentoring project served for participants during this extremely challenging time.
Speaker:
Ms. Rachael O’Connor, Lecturer in Law, Director of Street Law, School of Law, University of Leeds
Rachael O’Connor is a Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, University of Leeds in the UK. Rachael was formerly a corporate tax solicitor in an international law firms and now teaches International Tax Law at postgraduate level, as well as Employment Law at undergraduate level. Rachael is a member of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education as well as the Centre for Business Law and Practice at Leeds. As Director of StreetLaw, Rachael leads several of the School of Law’s community engagement programmes (StreetLaw and PrisonLaw) and as well as tax and employment law, has a keen interest in pedagogic research, focusing in particular on international students, staff/student relationships and linking legal education with the legal profession. Together with colleagues from across the University, Rachael set up the Internationalising Student Education Network within the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence which aims to support colleagues and students across the University to thrive in an internationalised campus.