We felt it would be useful to offer training in artistic mentoring in order to ensure more consistency around what the role entails, to create a project community and to boost the teachers’ mentoring skills. The training course would allow us to create a uniform arrangement that all mentors had to stick to. We would be able to meet several times to share experiences of the mentoring, and we would try to identify a few learning points as representing best practice for the role of “artistic mentor”.
We discussed numerous potential models when planning the training course. Since one key aim was to raise awareness of the students’ musicianship, role and context, we chose to organise a series of seminars on topics such as the philosophy of art and aesthetics. Filling a role that straddles multiple specialisms and genres while incorporating every aspect of the students’ practice requires a unique skill set, and we therefore wanted the mentors to be able to take a holistic perspective and support the students in developing self-leadership and artistic identity. The skills required for the role of artistic mentor centre around knowledge and experience of constructive personal dialogue and formative discussion, reflection on performance practice in respect of context, traditions and the philosophy of art, and working knowledge of life as a performer in today’s music industry.
We opted to invite an external tutor to introduce the participants to practical mentoring and coaching tools for dialogue-based and student-centred communication. The participants themselves – with their extensive, combined artistic expertise – served as resources within the group on artistic topics in the form of discussions and knowledge-sharing. Course tutor Susann Gjerde holds a doctorate in organisation and leadership. She is an associate professor (BI, USN, Lund University) and the author of the book “Coaching: hva, hvorfor, hvordan” (Fagbokforlaget, 2003). Nyhus and Orning had several meetings with Susann Gjerde when developing the course. The aim was to create a potential model for artistic mentors by trialling methods to raise awareness amongst the students of their personal development, musicianship and context; to encourage reflection and critical thinking by asking questions and broadening their perspectives; to try out tools and models for student-centred and dialogue-based mentoring; and to support learning on their instrument and build bridges across the curriculum.
Practical execution
Entitled “Mentoring students in an artistic process”, the course was scheduled for January–April 2020 and comprised three all-day seminars with individual work taking place in between. The course was mandatory for the CPAM mentors (including project managers Nyhus and Orning), but it was also open to other teachers not part of the CPAM project.
An experienced tutor, Gjerde created a dynamic programme with lectures, group work and group discussions. Amongst the topics raised were coaching and mentoring strategies, empathy and acknowledgement, active listening, effective questioning, drive and motivation, self-reflection, identity and values, reflection and reflexivity, focusing on practice and learning, and discussions about these topics in the context of music and arts education. In addition to the seminars, we also organised two meetings for all mentors during the project itself (without Gjerde present) where we shared experiences and reflections on the mentoring role.