Written by Ria Banerjee, LEC 2022
The seven-month journey from accepting the invitation to mentor the LEC 2022 cohort to the act of listening to each of my mentees’ field project presentations passed by in a flash. It was an intense and emotional experience for me. Returning to LEC after four years to work closely with a community of committed library practitioners was both exciting and challenging. The familiar team, course, and support system provided me with a sense of comfort and confidence to take on this significant responsibility. Our collective aim was to effect meaningful change, and I felt invigorated by the energy and enthusiasm of those around me.
When I was asked to mentor five participants, I immediately said yes, but many questions flooded my mind:
- How could I mentor my mentees with my limited library experience? How and why would they trust me?
- How could I make this journey enjoyable and challenging for my mentees so that they could think and reflect deeply? Would I be able to ask the right questions and provide meaningful feedback?
What does it mean to be a mentor? The LEC team agreed that there is no formula for mentoring but everyone shared some core values of mentorship based on their prior experiences. One idea from our first Mumbai mentor meet that stayed with me was from the mentor note which said that the word ‘mentor’ evolved to mean trusted advisor, friend and wise person. With that very idea, I approached the mentorship process to support them in the course. This trust was initially built over by being honest about my own limitations as well as strengths of working with children. The essence of this role for me was rooted in the values of humility, trust, respect and responsiveness.
The mentoring relationship started with weekly virtual calls on Monday evenings after the first LEC contact. The day and time were agreed upon by everyone during the Mentor Reveal in Goa. We also talked about our expectations as a group. Looking back, we began with a sense of tentativeness, unsure if we could all meet weekly due to our full-time jobs and other commitments. However, everyone consistently showed up, which was my motivation after a tiring day at work. Initially, these calls focused on check-ins to understand my mentees’ feelings and needs by actively listening to them. Other things we did in these calls were reading from the journal and book talks which are some of the core library practices. Then for a couple of weeks, we played games to push ourselves to read from the virtual library. One of the games was to guess the title of the books by giving some picture clues and another game was where each one of us were assigned to a book and we had to do different tasks based on the prompt. I got the book, ‘Tiger on a Tree’ by Anushka Ravishankar. I was given the task of reading the text aloud like a poem. The rhyming words in the book made it a fun experience. One of my mentees had to act and we had to guess the title of the book. We all enjoyed these 15 to 20 minutes of warming up to more important aspects of the course such as Moodle prompts, assignments and field projects. I felt these small activities were essential to make my mentees feel relaxed yet prepared for the more demanding components, which I would say have been the assignments.
The first assignment provided valuable insights into each of my mentees, especially regarding how they approached each question and their writing style. It also helped me understand the question’s demands better. My Super Mentor, Beena, provided constant support during these calls and guided me to look at things more critically. Gradually, as I got to know my mentees through these calls and one-on-one interactions, I began to feel more confident in providing meaningful feedback to the drafts.
I remember Beena pointing out that library educators face themselves in their field project, which is a critical practice component of the course. LEC holds a special place in my professional journey because of what my own field project engagement opened up for me as a practitioner in small and profound ways. This helped me guide my mentees in shaping up their field projects along with the inputs of the faculty and the team. Like Usha and Sujata always say, I told my mentees to keep children at heart of this project, listen carefully, observe and respond to their needs, interests and questions.
The field project was one of the most exciting parts of the journey. When my mentees shared their weekly updates over the calls, I could see their joy as well as their apprehensions. They were joyful about how children responded to their sessions positively, but apprehensive about plans that did not go well. There were several questions for which I did not have answers right away. I realized it was okay to not be always solution oriented. Sometimes, I left them with the questions for themselves to figure out and there were moments when I noticed a mentee wandering off, I did not hesitate to point that out. There were times when I felt skeptical that the approach of a mentee might be too instrumental or didactic and lacks reflections. I tried to ask questions to help them think, then I also left them at their stage of reflections since I believe that reflective thinking also grows with practice. The field projects were also a great learning for me.
When I look back, I feel there are certain qualities of a mentor which resonated with me as also stated by Resee and Hawkins –
- Being confident about revealing my own challenges
- Being curious and demonstrating enthusiasm for learning
- Reaching out in ways that are inclusive and show honest interest and positive regard for others
There could be barriers to mentoring as well and it wasn’t absolutely a smooth journey. I also needed reassurance and clarifications, but that is also part of this collaborative process. Mentors are not always ‘know it all’ individuals, they are equally co-learners. Along with having a deeper sense of library work, I also got to learn and grow through this process both personally and professionally. With all the ups and down, we moved together in this journey of becoming library educators and being a mentor was a rewarding experience.
References
Reese, Gregory L. and Hawkins, Ernestine L. Stop Talking Start Doing! Attracting People of Color to the Library Profession. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1999
