The Department of Sociology and Anthropology has been central to the development of institutionally recognized teaching mentorship positions as well as the development of informal avenues of undergraduate student mentorship and peer support through the Sociology and Anthropology Student Association (SASA).
In our first-year introductory courses, graduate students begin their teacher training by facilitating small, weekly first-year tutorials as Teaching Assistants (TA). The EDC's TA Mentor program has evolved over the years to provide incoming and current Teaching Assistants with ongoing training and support from a fellow graduate student. This year we are offering the support of two Graduate Peer Mentors.
Teaching Mentors take a leadership role to build on the informal mentorship that already occurs within academic departments and to further cultivate the department's culture of teaching and learning. They act as an initial point of contact for new faculty members and contract instructors seeking advice on developing and teaching courses, and for all instructors interested in developing their own teaching and pedagogy. Teaching Mentors host several teaching ‘Brown Bags’ and roundtable discussion events in the department throughout the academic year. They create, distribute and curate shared teaching resources, while also serving as a point of contact between the EDC and the department for the promotion of teaching and learning events.
The Teaching Mentor Program was initially launched by several CU Teaching Fellows in 2016 as a pilot project to help support teaching at the departmental level in the University. The Teaching Mentor Program recognizes that each department may have its own specific teaching and learning culture within which faculty and instructors develop their courses and consider discipline-specific teaching techniques and assessments.
We currently have two Faculty Teaching Mentors in our department:
Graduate Peer Mentors build a community of support that enhances Teaching Assistant (TA) facilitation of online tutorials. They also organize various activities and workshops, and host weekly coffee hours to help build this community of support among graduate students in the Department. Click here to meet the Graduate Peer Mentors.