Advisors and Advising
Your advisor is a partner. S/he is supposed to guide your work, help you in various ways, and occasionally even put his/her foot down, but the way the advising relationship is meant to work is AS A DIALOGUE. If there is no dialogue between you and your advisor, you might as well just go to sleep.
One important consequence of this is that an advisor does not fill a role anything like the one filled by teachers in conventional high schools and colleges. Faculty advisors are people familiar with the ideas of dialogue, feedback, learning cycles, evaluation, and experiential education. You cannot be afraid to bring an issue to their attention; they are not going to "fail" you because you spoke up.
This cooperative relationship between the student and the facutly advisor is supported on a number of levels. For instance, not only does the advisor evaluate the student's work, but the student also evaluates the advisor's work. There is a form that we use to evaluate a faculty advisor. (If you are reading the bound-paper version of this, the form is on the page after this section.) The form is ten years old, and has several shortcomings, but it has a place for individual comments and it is all we have until we get a new one together. Unfortunately, a lot of students never end up turning one in, for various reasons. Don't let it be you!
The topics on the form came out of a discussion at a World Conference about the role of the advisor, and what the ideal advisor would be. Needless to say, a lot of opinions came together in that list. Some advisors are nurturing, some tend towards essays as their favorite kind of documentation, some are quiet, etc. Sometimes you will be working with an advisor whose style is very different from your own. It is probably worthwhile for you and your advisor to sit down at your very first advising session, to go over what you both expect from the advising relationship, and to come to a common understanding.
The variety of personality in advisor (and in student) is complicated further by the fact that there are cultural norms which affect the role of the advisor and his/her relationship with students. At some centers, advisors may seem very distant from you (esp. if you are from the USA) even while they are pleading with you to work with them. At some centers, you may find that the role of the advisor is more personal than you had expected it to be. Both the student and the advisor need to try to recognize when cultural misunderstandings are getting in the way of the advising relationship, and to try to work through them.
Yet another attempt at ensuring a cooperative, dialogic working relationship is the system of advising sessions. These are meant to be contact points in the most general sense, a way to gain perspective on the little learning cycles that are going on all the time as part of your big learning cycle. They are also chances to really work with and get to know the person who will be evaluating your work with you. Advising meetings are chances for feedback in both directions: Your advisor may expect you to fill her/him in on what has gone on since the last meeting, or s/he may expect some writing or revision. Your Portfolio, remember, is a kind of communication. In turn, you may expect reasonable feedback from your advisor on the work that you have already done; it is important to work out as soon as possible what is kind of feedback is most useful to each of you. Written feedback is more work, but is useful for later reference, as well as providing a kind of road map of where your work has gone. Regardless of exactly how the two of you work out your feedback methods, it is important that you at least keep record of the fact that you met, and the basics of what you talked about. That is what we have an Advisement Record for (if you are reading the paper-bound version of this, the form is the second one after this section).
It is especially important to specify the date of the next advisement, because otherwise it may slip through the cracks and not happen at all. Both you and your advisor must make sure of regular meetings. Both of you must correspond regularly when you are on project. Feedback is a central element of both your role and your advisor's role in the relationship. Both of you must seek to work out issues by talking, compromising, negotiating, and getting help.
Sometimes, you may find that your advising relationship just isn't working (sometimes you advisor may feel the same). If this happens talk it over with the advisor first, and then bring in any help that seems appropriate. Written feedback can be important to both you and your advisor as a "paper trail," in the event that one or the other of you is dissatisfied later on. At the very worst, you are allowed to change advisors. However, remember that advisors are also human. Approaching any person in an angry or rude way will naturally bring out the worst possible response. Keep dialogue in mind and take responsibility. Don't wait for someone else to make your advising relationship work.
Workshop Discussion Sparks
- Have group advising sessions once in a while where people can benefit from shared experience.
Inspired and Creative
- If your advisor is new to Friends World, help to train him or her. Do your best to explain the way things work, in theory and in practice.
Rigorous Training
- Before each advising session, sit down for five minutes and sketch out your agenda for that meeting. You may find that you are able to get a lot more done with your advisor.
AAAAAGGGHHHH!
- Don't avoid your advisor just because you have nothing to hand in that week! Remember that your advisor is not a High School Teacher. You and s/he will have things to talk about even if they happen to be things like solving whatever problem are getting in your way. Dialogue works on levels other than the intellectual as well.
See Also
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