Mentoring

Graduate students — regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, socioeconomic background, discipline or department affiliation — want more effective mentoring. Good mentoring helps all students learn more successfully, and that is the University’s core business.

But not all students’ needs are the same. Just as the effective teacher tailors lessons to the learning needs of diverse students, the skilled mentor tailors guidance strategies to the goals and circumstances of individual mentees.

At the Graduate School, we hear from a wide range of students, including those who have been underrepresented or marginalized in U.S. higher education. As a result, we have learned about challenges students face in their graduate programs.

Mentoring, like all academic and professional activities, takes place in historical, social and political contexts that influence our institutional culture. The Graduate School acknowledges this fact in its commitment to identify, pursue, and encourage strategies that enhance success, diversity and multiculturalism in all facets of graduate education.

Opening lines of communication

Good mentoring includes talking regularly about research, coursework and teaching, examining the multiple roles of a professional in a particular field and jointly exploring funding avenues and job opportunities. Graduate students consistently describe these themes as high priorities.

No single formula for successful mentoring exists, but we do know that frank, mutual exploration of expectations and interests should be the focus of first meetings with mentees. This guide addresses factors that can influence graduate students’ mentoring needs and suggests effective ways you and your students can promote learning and professional development.

Many people assume that good mentoring “just happens” naturally or is only for those who are “lucky enough” to stumble upon the right individuals to guide their intellectual and professional development. In fact, good mentoring is a matter of awareness, intention and a genuine desire to see protégés succeed. This guide walks you through the concepts, planning, strategies and tools that facilitate meaningful mentoring relationships.

What is mentoring?

In graduate school, mentoring relationships are close, individualized relationships that develop over time between a graduate student and one or more faculty members, or with other professionals who have a strong interest in the student’s educational and career goals. It includes not only academic guidance, but also prolonged nurturing of the student’s personal, scholarly and professional development.

Mentors are:

• advisers, who have career experience and share their knowledge
• supporters, who give emotional and moral encouragement
• tutors, who provide specific feedback on performance
• masters, who serve as employers to graduate student “apprentices”
• sponsors, who are sources of information and opportunities models of identity, who serve as academic role models (Zelditch, 1990, p. 11)

Although some mentoring and advising activities are similar, not all mentors are advisers and not all advisers are mentors. (By advisers, we mean thesis or dissertation supervisors.) Advising focuses on the activities, requirements, and attainment of satisfactory progress through the steps needed to achieve a graduate degree. Mentoring focuses on the human relationships, commitments and resources that help graduate students find success and fulfillment in their academic and professional pursuits.

Mentoring enables graduate students to:

• acquire a body of knowledge and skills
• develop techniques for networking and collaborating
• gain perspective on how their discipline operates academically, socially and politically
• acquire a sense of scholarly citizenship by grasping their roles in a larger educational enterprise
• deal more confidently with challenging intellectual work

Mentoring enables faculty members to:

• engage the curiosities and energies of fresh minds
• keep abreast of new research questions, knowledge, paradigms and techniques
• cultivate collaborators for current or future projects
• identify and train graduate assistants whose work is critical to a research project or course offering
• prepare the next generation of intellectual leaders in the disciplines and in society
• enjoy the personal and professional satisfaction inherent in mentoring relationships

Disciplinary guide

Sometimes a faculty member can be a thesis/dissertation adviser and a mentor whereas, in other cases, the student benefits more by having different people carry out each role. Either way, the role of a disciplinary guide is to help students become contributing members of their disciplines. This guidance goes beyond helping students complete the requirements of their academic programs and involves helping students

• understand how their discipline has evolved as a knowledge enterprise
• recognize novel questions
• identify innovative ways of engaging undergraduate students through teaching and collaborative research projects
• see their discipline — its questions and methodologies — in relation to other fields
• grasp the impact their disciplines have on the world outside of academe
• assist them in pursuing the kind of impact they desire to have with a graduate degree

Skills development consultant

The pressures for specialization in graduate study can make students temporarily lose sight of the array of skills needed to succeed during and after graduate school. This can result, in part, because of the relative intensity and isolation of research. As a skills consultant, your role is to emphasize the variety of skills, including but going beyond the research skills that effective professionals possess.

Oral and written communication skills. These include clearly expressing the results of one’s study; translating field-specific knowledge for use in varied contexts, such as teaching or interacting with the public; and persuading others, such as funders, policy makers, or conference audiences, of the value of one’s work.

Team-oriented skills. Often, the most innovative learning occurs in teams that problem solve problems collaboratively. Your role is to foster collaborative problem-solving by helping students learn through group exercises and projects.

Leadership skills. Graduate students often become intellectual leaders in a variety of settings. Effective mentors help students build their potential by inviting them to assume leadership roles throughout graduate study, e.g., in seminars, graduate student government, community outreach, disciplinary societies, and department or university committees. These activities help build people skills—listening to others, shaping ideas and expressing priorities—which are indispensable for advancement in any career.

Career consultant

The mentor’s role as career consultant has taken on increased importance, especially for doctoral students. Many doctoral students are choosing positions in a greater variety of educational settings and diverse sectors of the economy.

The mentor imparts a view of careers as an evolutionary process — one that requires planning, flexibility and adaptation to change. Informed of job market realities, an effective mentor finds ways to help students develop relationships with other potential mentors. You can find these individuals in other places in the University or among your graduate alumni. You can also find them in schools, community groups, nonprofits, corporations, government agencies, or industrial laboratories. Wider relationships help students gain a realistic and informed view of their career choices and learn how to translate their degree into professional opportunities.

Part of your responsibility as a mentor is to help students cultivate multiple mentoring relationships inside and outside the UW. Multiple sources of expertise improve students’ abilities to marshal the resources they need to meet the challenges of graduate education and careers. Have thoughtful discussions with your mentees and ask them what they need from you to navigate their educational experience, adapt to disciplinary cultures and become productive, fulfilled professionals and colleagues.

Develop your own vision of good mentoring

To develop your own vision for effective mentoring, reflect on your days as a graduate student and answer with candor the following questions:

• What kind of mentoring did I receive?
• What did I find helpful and unhelpful about the mentoring I received?
• How well would the mentoring I received apply to the graduate student population today?
• How well did my mentors help me progress developmentally through my graduate program?
• How do the people and challenges in my field today different differ from when I was in graduate school?
• How well did my mentors prepare me for my career?
• What kinds of mentoring would have been helpful to me?

The answers may help you to define the kind of mentor you want to be and identify the building blocks for developing productive relationships with graduate students.

Engage students in conversation

• A simple “hello” in the hallway makes a difference. Ask students how they are doing with coursework or projects.
• Let students know they are welcome to talk with you during your office hours.
• Talk to your mentees at least once a quarter. Reach out to those who seem remote to find out whether it is their cultural way of being respectful or if it is due to social and academic isolation.
• Share coffee or meals with students away from the office, if you are able, to engage them in informal discussions without office distractions.

“The message my mentor sent to me was that I had value enough for her to spend time with me.”

“The most important things my mentor did were spending time talking with me and taking an interest in things interesting to me.”

Demystify graduate school for students

• Obtain the most recent copies of your program’s guidelines and the Graduate School’s Policies & Procedures.
• Adjust your conversations to the level of students’ understanding. New students may not know certain terminology or what questions to ask. Many are hearing terms such as “qualifying exams” or “prelims” for the first time.
• Clarify unwritten or vague aspects of your program’s expectations for coursework, comprehensive exams, research, and teaching.
• Help students grasp the finer points of forming a committee and how to approach a thesis or dissertation. At each stage of the graduate experience, discuss the formal and informal criteria that determine what counts as quality work.
• Alert students to pitfalls well ahead of time, especially those that may affect funding or graduate standing.

“It has been extremely helpful to me to have a mentor who recognized that academic procedures and protocol — everything from how to select classes to how to assemble a panel for a conference — are not familiar territory for a lot of people.”

“My mentor has been willing to answer the most basic questions without making me feel foolish for asking them.”

Provide constructive and supportive feedback

• Provide students with forthright assessments of their work. Do not assume they know what you think about their work.
• Provide timely feedback on students’ work. A delay in responding can create insecurity and hinder their progress.
• Be just as specific when you give praise as you are when you give criticism because students learn from both. Remind students that, with your high standards, you intend to help them improve.
• Avoid assuming that students who fall behind in their work lack commitment. Talk with them to learn what is going on. They may be exhausted or unclear about what to do next, simply dislike a project or have difficulties with collaborators.
• In a timely manner, address any problems that pose questions about a student’s ability to complete his or her degree. Putting issues aside may cause more damage later.

“I wrote several drafts before he felt I had begun to make a cogent argument, and as painful as that was, I would not have written the dissertation that I did without receiving strong, if just, criticism, but in a compassionate way.”

“Honest advice given as gently as possible is something all of us graduate students need.”

Provide encouragement

• Encourage students to discuss their ideas.
• Encourage students to try new techniques and expand their skills.
• Let students know that mistakes lead to better learning. Share a less-than-successful experience of your own and what it taught you. For example, you might show students a heavily critiqued paper you submitted in graduate school or to a journal.
• Reassure students of their skills and abilities to succeed.
• Many experience anxiety about whether they belong in graduate school (e.g., the “imposter syndrome”).
• Teach students how to break large scholarly tasks into smaller, more manageable ones to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

“Mentorship is far more than a one-time conversation about your career plans or a visit to a professor’s home. It is the mentor’s continuous engagement in a student’s professional growth and the ongoing support and encouragement of student’s academic endeavors.”

“My professors encouraged me both to publish my work and to participate in conferences. Without their encouragement, I might not have made the effort to accomplish these things.”

Foster networks and multiple mentors

• Suggest others who can help students if there is a need you cannot meet. UW faculty, graduate students, alumni, department staff, retired faculty and faculty from other universities are rich resources.
• Introduce students to faculty and other graduate students with complementary interests on campus and at conferences.
• Help students connect their work with experts in the community (e.g., graduate alumni) who can provide helpful career perspectives.
• Build a community of scholars by coordinating informal discussion groups, projects or occasional potluck meals among students who share academic interests.

“My co-chair referred me to a faculty member doing related research at UNC at a time when my research was floundering and I really needed additional support. I could not have completed my dissertation were it not for this recommendation.”

“My advisers really made a team of their graduate students, having regular meetings and informal parties and get-togethers, working on projects together, and forming interest groups. That comradeship was essential to my academic growth and my sense of having a community.”

Look out for students’ interests

• Let your students know up front, and in a variety of ways, that you want them to succeed.
• Create opportunities for students to demonstrate their competencies. For instance, take them to meetings and conferences, or encourage them to make presentations to gain visibility.
• Nominate your mentees for high-visibility fellowships, projects and teaching opportunities when you feel they are sufficiently prepared.
• Promote students’ research and teaching accomplishments inside and outside your department.
• Be an advocate for all graduate students.

“My mentor allowed my tasks to grow along with me, offering appropriate opportunities and challenges at each stage of my education.”

“I knew that I was not just an ordinary student when she invited me to co-teach. We worked together as colleagues, not as teacher and student.”

Treat students with respect

• Minimize interruptions and distractions during meetings with students. A common concern among students is that professors do not provide them their full attention while talking. Be aware of your body language. Avoid looking at your watch or e-mail while a student is talking.
• Remember previous conversations with students. Some faculty keep notes on discussions (filing them separately from students’ official records) and review the notes prior to meetings.
• Tell your students what you learn from them. Such disclosure helps students see themselves as potential colleagues.
• Acknowledge the prior skills and valuable personal, professional, and educational experiences students bring to graduate school.

“She treated me and her other students with respect — respect for our opinions, our independence, and our visions of what we wanted to get from graduate school.”

“It sounds silly but the best thing my mentor did for me was to actually sit down and listen to what I had to say. When graduate students are allowed to feel that what they have to say is actually worthwhile, it makes interactions more rewarding.”

Provide a personal touch

• Be open and approachable. Students may need to discuss certain academic and non-academic issues. Knowing they can come to you and that you will care is particularly helpful to shy students or those from backgrounds different from yours.
• Help students find creative solutions to their challenges or problems.
• Familiarize yourself with the Graduate School’s mentoring and professional development resources so you can refer students to multiple avenues of assistance.

“Having someone supportive when things go wrong is the difference, in my mind, between an adequate mentor and a great one.”

“A few of my professors were always willing and eager to talk with me about my career interests, professional pursuits, and issues such as juggling career and family. This may not sound like much, but it truly makes a difference.”

Need for role models

All graduate students benefit from role models they can admire. People usually identify role models based on shared outlook and connections to similar experiences. Because of the composition of faculty at the UW, students from historically underrepresented or marginalized groups and women in some disciplines can face greater challenges finding faculty role models. Some students convey that they hope to find “someone who looks like me,” “someone who immediately understands my experiences and perspectives” or “someone whose very presence lets me know I, too, can make it in the academy.”

• If the composition of faculty and graduate students in your department is homogenous, help identify and recruit new members who represent diverse backgrounds.
• Hold departmental discussions on how to provide educational and work climates that welcome contributions from all members.
• Become familiar with people across the University or at other universities who can help your mentees.

Our graduate students are a wonderful group who’ve come to the UW to learn from faculty, each other, and various experiences on their journeys. Advisors have a special role to play in their success.  

As advisors and other mentors seek to support students, it’s important to remember that students and their interests are diverse. Some are domestic while others are international. Some know the “rules of the graduate school game” while others don’t. Some are financially self-sufficient while others aren’t. Some entered graduate programs right after undergraduate while others worked for several years before returning.  

An advisor’s role is to support students in their academic pursuits, connect students to resources to sustain and support them and ensure they are ready to enter the job market.  

We offer some high-level tips and additional resources below. This page will be built out as the Future of the PhD taskforce devises recommendations in each category. 

Category 1: Mentoring and advising 

• Find out what motivates your students. Then, help them learn how to use sound disciplinary concepts and theories to frame the issues that drive their intellectual curiosity. 
• Talk to students about their strengths and help them improve in other areas. 
• Establish standards for language use and communication when you interact with graduate students. Convey that your goal in doing so is to ensure an environment that is conducive to effective learning and achievement. 
• Inform yourself about scholarly advances in your discipline resulting from the inclusion of more recent research and perspectives. Think about the challenges these advances pose to your discipline and to scholars. 
• Be alert to funding opportunities for your students, especially for the summer, and make them aware of the opportunities. 
• Use concrete language to convey feedback on students’ work. Saying “this paragraph exposes the research problem succinctly but leaves out one important point” is clearer than “this is not bad” or “I don’t have any major problems with it.” Ambiguous feedback hinders students’ performance. 
• Be aware of negative classroom dynamics and the ways they may affect the experiences of all students. 
• Set ground rules with your students for group discussions in your courses, labs, research groups, etc. and explain how your expectations for participation will advance students’ learning goals. 
• Adjust the tenor of discussions that become overly critical. Remind students that it is easier to criticize a work than to produce one, and follow up with: “What contributions does this particular piece make?” 

Category 2: Community and belonging 

• Encourage students to attend departmental functions and form study or writing groups. 
• Be aware of students who seem to experience difficulty taking active roles in departmental settings and find ways to include them. Ask them about their research interests, hobbies, activities and avocations. 
• Introduce your students to others with complementary interests. 
• Remind students of organizations on and off campus that provide a sense of community, e.g., cultural and religious groups, reading groups, professional associations and the Graduate School’s varied resources. 
• Experiment with ways of preventing a few students from dominating discussion. For example, encourage students who have participated in discussion to wait until others have had a chance to talk before contributing again. 
• Acknowledge multiple forms of participation, e.g., group work, e-mail discussions or discussion boards, journal comments, informal discussions and office hours. Some students contribute better in small groups. 
• Be aware of how discussion groups form in your seminars and determine ways to intervene if students become excluded or marginalized. 
• Know whether your office, lab, seminar room, etc. is accessible. If not, work with the student and Disability Resource Services unit on your campus to determine what accommodations will ensure
• equitable access. 
  Put books or course packets on reserve so that students do not always have to buy their own copies. 
• Make sure graduate students know how to contact a departmental and Graduate School representative if they feel they are being treated in ways that negatively impact their work. 

Category 3: Professional and career development 

• Ask students about their aspirations and how graduate education will help them achieve their goals  
• Encourage students to anticipate skeptics’ responses to their topics and to plan ahead for addressing them. 
• Understand that graduate students’ career aspirations vary and their interests may not be the same as those that motivated you to want to become a professor. 
• Ask students who worked in careers before returning to graduate school how their work experiences relate to or have influenced them to pursue graduate study.  
• Provide opportunities for students to link theory and practice. 
• Realize that career aspirations may shift several times over the course of students’ degree programs, so be prepared to help your mentees seek out a variety of job opportunities. 

Resources:  

• Interested in learning more about supporting graduate students? 
• The Graduate Excellence Progress Tool provides resources for use across the entire graduate student lifecycle. 
• The Office of Graduate Student Success hosts a range of programming to support graduate students.  
• The Graduate School’s Student Handbook provides links to a variety of offices, opportunities, and trainings intended to support graduate students. 

Students observe their professors devoting large parts of their lives to their work in order to find success in the academy and can feel overwhelmed if they feel expected to spend every waking minute on their studies. This perception causes concerns for students who seek to balance success in their graduate career with other responsibilities, such as family, personal interests or outside work.

• Demonstrate to students that you value each dimension of your life. Share your thoughts about the benefits of balancing work and life.
• Offer your students tips on managing time, and help them understand that large tasks can be divided into manageable components.
• Recognize that students work hard to balance school and home demands. Those with family responsibilities are not able to spend as many hours on campus as other students, but often can be better focused when they are there.
• Respect the personal lives of all students and encourage students to maintain friendships and a social life.
• Learn about the demands your students face beyond the department. If you sense that a student is encountering difficulties, listen first and offer ideas for solutions. Or, guide the student to appropriate campus resources.

Family responsibilities

As the graduate student population increases in age, so do family responsibilities, such as raising children or caring for elderly relatives. These students find that the structure of graduate education in a large research university presumes an ability to be on campus at any time, which can conflict with their other responsibilities.

Cultural beliefs influence the ways students deal with family responsibilities while in graduate school. For example, when mourning a family member, some students may be expected to spend considerable time consoling relatives at home.

Dual commitments

Students with family responsibilities are committed to being successful academically, and they are often organized and focused during the time they carve out for graduate work. Unfortunately, students may fear that their professors will misconstrue this attention to other responsibilities as a lack of commitment to scholarship. Emergencies, such as an ill child or parent, occasionally prevent students from attending seminars or meetings and can exacerbate that misperception. Childcare demands do not necessarily lessen, even after a child enters school. Other demands arise, such as illness or transporting children to school or sports.

Isolation

Students with family responsibilities might find it difficult to attend as many social, academic and professional functions. They may experience isolation from their cohorts and departments, missing out on “academic business.”

Time constraints

Students with family responsibilities often need to be home in the evenings. After-hours study group assignments or research projects can present difficulties, as can having to return campus for evening lectures or departmental meetings.

Recommendations

• Develop accommodations for students with family responsibilities who might need to miss some seminars.
• Distribute assignments in advance so students can fit them into demanding schedules.
• Encourage students to explore email, live chats, listservs and discussion boards to facilitate group work.
• Discuss your own family responsibilities with your graduate students.
• Plan some departmental, family-friendly social events.
• Acknowledge the amount of organization, commitment and passion needed to “do it all and do it well.” Help students to communicate how a graduate degree can bring long-term benefits to them and their families.

Resources

• Center for Workforce Development provides graduate student mentorship and resources geared towards women pursuing careers in the sciences and engineering.
• Center for Curriculum Transformation assists individual faculty and academic departments with curriculum change related to gender and cultural pluralism.
• Childcare Assistance Program for Students offers a childcare subsidy program. To be eligible for funding, students need to demonstrate financial need and must use licensed childcare.
• Work/Life Office can help UW students find child care or elder care.
• Housing & Food Services
• Family Housing

Encourage your department

Departmental faculty members, chairs and graduate program coordinators share the responsibility of establishing and maintaining a culture of effective mentoring. While this culture will differ by department, some common elements make effective mentoring environments.

Develop a mentoring policy

Each department should establish a policy that establishes mentoring as a core component of the graduate student experience. Mentoring policies are most effective when the faculty create them based on a few interviews with mentoring focus groups. This way, all members of a department can identify principles of mentoring and agree on how they will establish and reward good practices.

Assign first-year, temporary advisers

Assign each new student a temporary faculty adviser to help him or her initiate relationships with faculty during the first year of graduate school. Assignments can be based on shared interests and should require each adviser to meet with advisees at least once a quarter to review departmental requirements and course selections, and make sure the students are adapting to department life. This will ensure that all students receive quality initial support in a systematic way. These temporary relationships allow students to learn the ropes without having to make premature commitments to a mentor. Later on, students’ choices of long-term mentors or advisers will be based on students’ research, teaching and career interests.

Establish peer mentoring

To facilitate students’ transition to graduate school, pair first-year graduate students with more advanced graduate students. Peer mentors can help new students become familiar with departmental culture, strategies for success and resources at the University and in Seattle. Departments should outline the basic responsibilities of peers to each other and the mentoring process, and make funds available for mentoring activities.

Establish multiple mentoring mechanisms

Rotate research mentors

Some departments require first- or second-year graduate students to work with faculty members to receive specific training so they may gain exposure to different skills and intellectual problems, not to conduct independent research. Disciplines in the sciences and engineering often rotate graduate students among faculty members.

Offer teaching mentors

Departments can assign a faculty mentor or two to observe TA classes and offer suggestions for improvement. Some departments offer a special course for graduate students working as TAs. Faculty instructors lead group discussions on topics such as pedagogical issues, general or discipline-specific instructional techniques and curriculum development.

Connect with your graduate alumni

Your graduate alumni are prominent professionals in their fields with many resources, ideas and energies to “give back” to your department and graduate students. Many UW departments reconnect with their alumni through speaker panels and workshops in which alumni can discuss career prospects and help students learn how to make their skills marketable.

Start a faculty-graduate student “brown bag” lunch program

Periodic faculty-graduate student lunches help students develop relationships and discover mutual interests with professors. Lunches can be organized around topics, and departments can circulate professors’ curriculum vitae (or post them on department websites) to help students assess faculty members’ research and teaching programs.

Create community

Designate a lounge or a conference room as place where graduate students, faculty, staff and their families can gather. Use this space to honor the accomplishments of graduate students and faculty, such as publications, research or teaching and mentoring awards.

Enhance professional socialization

Invite students to participate on departmental committees, including hiring and admissions committees. Encourage graduate students to present their teaching or research at departmental seminars, and increase opportunities for practicing public speaking skills. Assign one or two faculty members to provide students with constructive feedback. Alumni speaker series help students network as well as construct ambitious plans for their careers.

Reward effective mentoring

During reviews for merit increases, departmental leaders can take into account the quality and quantity of the mentoring that individual faculty provide. Departments can ask graduate students to assess their mentors. Another way to reward good mentors is to factor in teaching credits for faculty who have heavy mentoring responsibilities.

Be visible

Help your students understand the importance of being visible in department life — that office and hallway conversations build and maintain relationships, as well as help people glean vital information. If students have a departmental office, encourage them to use it as much as possible. Help them find ways to be visible, such as getting involved in gatherings or coordinating events.

Taking yourself seriously

Graduate students need to see themselves as potential colleagues. Talk to your students about professional activities that build career potential, including participating in departmental activities, joining professional associations, networking at conferences or campus events and seeking opportunities to present projects.

Be responsible

Students should understand the value of “owning” their educations, which includes developing a vision of the future and attending to everyday details, such as being prompt for meetings, preparing agendas and updating mentors about their progress and plans.

Receive criticism in a professional manner

Students need to accept constructive criticism of their work in a professional manner. Accepting criticism does not mean agreeing with everything that is said, but rather reflects a willingness to consider other points of view. Students should defend their ideas in a professional manner.

Comment on advice

Sharing different opinions is a mark of collegiality and growth. For example, ask students for their reactions to books or articles you have suggested. You can also ask students whether your advice is useful. Sometimes not taking your advice can be a sign that your mentees are thinking on their own — and a sign of growth.

Questioning

Questioning is often what helps academic disciplines evolve. Sometimes students find that their perspectives or intellectual interests do not fit neatly into the current academic canons. For instance, interest in interdisciplinary questions and in the social applications of knowledge is growing, but many students find that the structure of their department makes it difficult for them to pursue research and teaching questions across disciplinary boundaries. Productive scholarly environments value new ways of thinking and encourage students to explore, and possibly challenge, different models of inquiry.

Listen to students’ experiences and perspectives, and ask them to share scholarly articles or essays that illustrate the work they would like to do. Identify content that is traditionally excluded or marginalized in your field and expand the boundaries of your discipline by addressing it.

Foster ongoing departmental discussions on how disciplinary and interdisciplinary theory and methodology are changing because of the inclusion of more diverse content, approaches and perspectives.