Best practices evolve from testing out and refining in practice the research on effective mentoring. That fact makes the guidance and availability of quality, exciting, timely mentoring research essential to the International Mentoring Association. That is one reason why every other year, the IMA selects and honors the “Outstanding Mentoring Dissertation”. If YOU are writing or recently have written an insightful mentoring dissertation, we’d love to hear from you, but you’ll need to submit the required information by December 1, 2011, so get started right away !
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About the 2011-12 IMA Dissertation Award
The IMA Hope Richardson Dissertation Award is given to foster and disseminate research in the practice of workplace learning and performance. It is presented every two years to the person who has submitted the best doctoral dissertation on mentoring for which a degree has been granted. The committee reserves the right to not issue the award should none of the submissions be deemed worthy.
Criteria
- The dissertation must report a study for which a doctoral degree was granted in the previous two years before the award is given. (2010 and 2011)
- The study must focus on some issue of relevance to the practice of mentoring, its application or evaluation and improvement to include education, business and industry, government/public service, or youth based mentoring program. Special consideration is given work which provides recommendations for practice.
- All research methodologies will be considered on an equal basis, including, for example, field-, laboratory-, quantitative-, and qualitative-investigations. However, the specific methods must be clearly outlined.
- The candidate must be recommended and sponsored by his or her committee chair. A committee chair may nominate more than one candidate who meets the criteria noted above in points 1 and 2.
- All materials must be in English, in Word .doc format, and submitted by email attachments with the exception of the nomination letter. Submissions should adhere to the format prescribed below.
- Sitting members of the IMA Board of Directors are not eligible to submit.
Submission Requirements
ALL submissions must be received by December 1, 2011.
Incomplete applications will not be processed or eligible for consideration.
The application must include the following, without exception, be in Word format, and be sent via email attachment:
1. Letter of application from candidate, a separate cover sheet that contains the candidate’s contact details (work and home address, telephone numbers, and email), and a brief abstract of the submission that does not exceed 120 words.
2. Recommendation from committee chair (sent in separate email originating from an email address of the academic institution as an attachment and also by mail, on institution letterhead) with the dissertation completion date noted in the letter.
3. Abstraction of the dissertation. The abstraction should not exceed ten (10) single-spaced pages in length (including abstraction, figures, tables, and references; 1-inch margins all around; 10-point font, pages numbered, APA 5th Edition, and no author identification in the documentation properties, document body, header, or footer of manuscript). Submissions that exceed the page limitations or do not adhere to the required format will not be considered.
4. The abstraction should include:
- Introduction
- Summary of the problem
- Purpose of the study and rationale (why is it important?)
- Critique of relevant literature
- Research Design and/or Methodology
- Sample selection
- Instrumentation and/or interview protocol
- Data collection and analysis procedures
- Results and Findings
- For quantitative studies, provide sufficient statistics, including power, significance, effect size, and strength of relationship.
- For qualitative studies, provide a concise analysis resulting from sufficient methodological rigor.
- For quantitative studies, provide sufficient statistics, including power, significance, effect size, and strength of relationship.
- Discussion
- Strengths of the research
- Limitations of the research.• Strengths and limitations may address the following topics:
- Why was the overall design chosen a “good” design? (i.e., methodologically rigorous and appropriate)
- What measurement and analysis problems did you encounter, and how did you resolve them?
- Threats to validity
- Implications for Practice and Research – Particular attention will be given to those studies that thoroughly discuss the significance of the findings to the practice of workplace learning and performance.
- Complete Electronic Copy of the Dissertation (to be in Word .doc format), including references, all appendices, tables, charts, etc.
- To insure a blind review, do not include your name or affiliation on any portion of the actual abstract.
The Dissertation Committee uses IMA and other higher education publications to seek submissions for this award. The committee members utilize a board approved rubric to review, categorize, and rate the dissertations which are submitted and meet the criteria.
The award winner will receive
- Commemorative plaque presented at the awards ceremony during the next IMA International Conference at Orlando, Florida, March 14-16, 2012.
- US$1000 cash prize to be used for conference travel and expenses.
- Designated place on the IMA international conference program to present the research.
- Announcement of the award and a summary of the findings in IMA publications and on the Web site.
- All nominees will receive a 1-year paid membership in the International Mentoring Association with all benefits.
*Call or email if you wish to submit your package on a CD.
Send the entire email package* to the Dissertation Committee Chair, Nancy S. Phenis-Bourke Ed.D.
nsbourke@aol.com; Please e-mail her with any questions.
Past IMA Dissertation Award Winners
Information summarizing these dissertations and their findings are in the members only section of the web site and listed by topic, which is why, except for the most recent award, there are no links to this information here. Join IMA so you can access these important research resources.
1997 – Dr. Corinne Dickey,
“Effects of Quality Mentoring of Women Students of Color in Higher Education”
1999 – Dr. Linda Stromei,
“An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Formal Mentoring Program for Managers and the Determinants of Protégé Satisfaction”
2001 – Dr. Janine Knackstedt,
“Organizational Mentoring: What About Protégé Needs?”
2003 – Dr. Alan Ladd, “The
Applicability of Zey’s Mutual Benefits Model (1984) for Mentoring in the Cooperative Extension Service”
2005 – Dr. Truls Engstrom of Stavanger, Norway, “Individual Determinants of Mentoring Success”
2007 – Dr. Julia Pryce, Ph.D., Chicago, Ilinois, “Up Close and Personal: A View of School-Based
Mentoring Relationships”
2009 –
Dr. Laura Gail Lunsford, University of Arizona South, “Doctoral Advisors and Their Protégés: Does Mentoring Matter?“