Becoming... Bildung as a core philosophical concept of transformative mentoring in higher education

Using Bildung, this chapter explores a recursive nature of mentoring through a continuum of three interconnected mentor-experiences, from a novice mentor (doctoral student now new faculty member), a competent mentor (untenured faculty member on the graduate student's dissertation committee), and an expert mentor (tenured faculty member and chair of the student's committee). It illuminates how the evolving relationship among these three women in academe situated to a traditional academic event of shepherding a student through a dissertation study, developed their respective knowledges and skills, as well as nurtured their scholarly potentials through mutual investment via three-layered mentorship. The chapter utilizes five poems that correspond with important stages of the doctoral student process, looking at each process through the novice mentor's perspective, reflecting on experiences and ways in which the mentor experience can be improved. The authors aim to challenge the 'standard' ways of mentoring in higher education, encouraging more innovative practices moving forward.