Purpose: This paper explores the pedagogical practices employed in supervising law PhD students within law schools. The study adopts an auto-ethnographic approach to investigate the beliefs of both supervisors and students regarding teaching, learning, research and supervision. Methodology: An overarching auto-ethnographic method was used to…

This is a longitudinal self-study of a mentoring relationship that emerged and evolved between a graduate research assistant and a professor over seven academic years. We use social exchange theory to explore the evolution of this relationship. Specifically, our focus is a series of nine revealing moments that demonstrate evident learning, a…

The aim of this paper is to explore the identity of the teacher as a dialectical being that is in permanent construction, to identify some obstacles teachers might find in this process while operating in an institutional framework, and the effects these could have upon the teacher and the goals she pursues with her students. By ruling out the idea…

This article examines relational ways of knowing--a concept both broad and deep--as a strategy we have infused throughout our design of one first-year Living and Learning Community (LLC). As outlined here, the authors teach faith as relationship; justice as being in just relationship with others, research as the concept of putting ideas in…

Can professors, through their casual, random remarks to students, alter lives and transform identities? The answer, based on two exploratory studies described in this article, appears to be yes. Drawing from constructive-developmental ideas of student maturation and from features of chaos theory as applied to the complex dynamic system of…

Positive turning points touch upon the essence of education. They epitomize its power and reflect its core agenda: maximizing human capital. Paradoxically, previous studies have not looked into this important phenomenon. The current exploratory study fills this lacuna by building on extensive empirical research of key educational experiences to…