“Mouakhat: BrotheredIn”, Peer-Mentorship Program for University Students in Algeria
By Hachelaf Ahmed Abdelhakim
Education Specialist- Algeria
PROJECT SYNOPSIS
Mentoring is defined as pairing of a more skilled or experienced person with a lesser skilled or experienced one, with the agreed upon goals in order to develop competencies (Murray 1991). Many may think that mentorship is a Western concept. In fact, it is a Western university tradition and the topic has gained upsurge lately in the United States and has developed into different forms and proved to be vital to success especially in education. Almost every department in the US nowadays have one type of mentoring if not more. For many specialists, mentoring makes or breaks academic success.
Nonetheless, helping new and unexperienced fellows is deeply entrenched in our Arab and Muslim culture. After immigrating to Elmadinah, the first thing the Prophet (PBUH) did was: ‘Mouakhat’ (brothering) between Mouhajirin (the newly immigrants who were oppressed in Mecca) with Elansar (the inhabitants of Elmadina). Everyone from Elansar was asked to take a ‘brother’ from Mouhajirin, and help him out succeed in the new environment. This seems a mentorship program in the modern sense of the word that aims at providing support and advice for the novice individuals who lack knowledge and skills in a new situation. The objective is the transfer of skills, building ties and above all, promoting altruist character and cooperative collegial environment. In mentorship, the leadership and effectiveness of both parties develop.
All of us quite well know how difficult the first year(s) of university can be with all the frustrations and downfalls that the new way of life at tertiary level puts the fresher students into, jeopardizing or weakening his/her success prospects. Freshmen need more senior students to help them navigate the overwhelming and sometimes frustrating atmosphere, and teachers fail most of the time to provide individualized help and tailored instruction to an increasing student body. As a result, students become overwhelmed with their course-work and are most of the time left with unanswered questions. This is more often than not the case with the insufficient number of teachers and the prevalence of large classrooms in many departments in Algerian universities affecting education quality and depriving students from personalized care and instruction that is one of the core elements and the spirit of the LMD reform proposed by the ministry of education a number of years ago.
This present project takes a cultural name ‘Mouakhat’ to make mentorship a communal practice. It is an ambitious initiative that tries to create a mentorship program for university students starting with a pilot project in three English Departments across the country in the hope it expands to other places.
The project thus seeks to enroll volunteering supportive mentors who provide moral support, advice and help mentees find resources, do projects, manage time, stress, and learning materials effectively. Mentors are expected to provide balanced constructive feedback, making connection for novice students, sharing their own successes and failures with them, and help them solve other social and personal issues when need be and try to help as much as they can in a brotherly manner. Mentors, however, are not expected to do things mentees are asked to do or write their essays. Moreover, they are not allowed to develop a parental relationship but a friendly collegial relationship with the mentees. This relationship can be mutually beneficial to both as they develop predispositions, attitudes and skills and leadership with mentees also contributing to the relationship. The mentors get a modest stipend, and allowance to buy tea or coffee and set meeting times. At the end of the program the mentors get a certificate of appreciation and they can put this experience in their CVs.
Mentors and mentees are asked to set advising time and to meet and connect formally and informally by sharing their contact information. Both are invited to learn the skills of being a mentor and a mentee by training workshops we organize periodically. They are also provided with guidelines booklets.
The overall objective is to help each other succeed and spread a culture of solidarity and mentorship and to expand that to other spaces. Mentorship has always been present in our culture. It is quite unfortunate that it has lost appeal lately.
Next step would be involving a group of alumni who are ideally previous mentors in the program who graduated. They can provide support for recent graduates and help them with their first year of work, or help thesis writers in the process of writing. The program will thus create the first alumni association in Algeria after the first year of its running. After the success of the pilot program, we will propose it to the Ministry of Higher education and encourage them to include it as a structural part of university management as is the case in American Universities and elsewhere. After the success of the program, a BrotheredIn Mobile App project will be proposed to match up peer advising fellows with mentees and develop a portfolio of mentors.
By Hachelaf Ahmed Abdelhakim
Education Specialist- Algeria
PROJECT SYNOPSIS
Mentoring is defined as pairing of a more skilled or experienced person with a lesser skilled or experienced one, with the agreed upon goals in order to develop competencies (Murray 1991). Many may think that mentorship is a Western concept. In fact, it is a Western university tradition and the topic has gained upsurge lately in the United States and has developed into different forms and proved to be vital to success especially in education. Almost every department in the US nowadays have one type of mentoring if not more. For many specialists, mentoring makes or breaks academic success.
Nonetheless, helping new and unexperienced fellows is deeply entrenched in our Arab and Muslim culture. After immigrating to Elmadinah, the first thing the Prophet (PBUH) did was: ‘Mouakhat’ (brothering) between Mouhajirin (the newly immigrants who were oppressed in Mecca) with Elansar (the inhabitants of Elmadina). Everyone from Elansar was asked to take a ‘brother’ from Mouhajirin, and help him out succeed in the new environment. This seems a mentorship program in the modern sense of the word that aims at providing support and advice for the novice individuals who lack knowledge and skills in a new situation. The objective is the transfer of skills, building ties and above all, promoting altruist character and cooperative collegial environment. In mentorship, the leadership and effectiveness of both parties develop.
All of us quite well know how difficult the first year(s) of university can be with all the frustrations and downfalls that the new way of life at tertiary level puts the fresher students into, jeopardizing or weakening his/her success prospects. Freshmen need more senior students to help them navigate the overwhelming and sometimes frustrating atmosphere, and teachers fail most of the time to provide individualized help and tailored instruction to an increasing student body. As a result, students become overwhelmed with their course-work and are most of the time left with unanswered questions. This is more often than not the case with the insufficient number of teachers and the prevalence of large classrooms in many departments in Algerian universities affecting education quality and depriving students from personalized care and instruction that is one of the core elements and the spirit of the LMD reform proposed by the ministry of education a number of years ago.
This present project takes a cultural name ‘Mouakhat’ to make mentorship a communal practice. It is an ambitious initiative that tries to create a mentorship program for university students starting with a pilot project in three English Departments across the country in the hope it expands to other places.
The project thus seeks to enroll volunteering supportive mentors who provide moral support, advice and help mentees find resources, do projects, manage time, stress, and learning materials effectively. Mentors are expected to provide balanced constructive feedback, making connection for novice students, sharing their own successes and failures with them, and help them solve other social and personal issues when need be and try to help as much as they can in a brotherly manner. Mentors, however, are not expected to do things mentees are asked to do or write their essays. Moreover, they are not allowed to develop a parental relationship but a friendly collegial relationship with the mentees. This relationship can be mutually beneficial to both as they develop predispositions, attitudes and skills and leadership with mentees also contributing to the relationship. The mentors get a modest stipend, and allowance to buy tea or coffee and set meeting times. At the end of the program the mentors get a certificate of appreciation and they can put this experience in their CVs.
Mentors and mentees are asked to set advising time and to meet and connect formally and informally by sharing their contact information. Both are invited to learn the skills of being a mentor and a mentee by training workshops we organize periodically. They are also provided with guidelines booklets.
The overall objective is to help each other succeed and spread a culture of solidarity and mentorship and to expand that to other spaces. Mentorship has always been present in our culture. It is quite unfortunate that it has lost appeal lately.
Next step would be involving a group of alumni who are ideally previous mentors in the program who graduated. They can provide support for recent graduates and help them with their first year of work, or help thesis writers in the process of writing. The program will thus create the first alumni association in Algeria after the first year of its running. After the success of the pilot program, we will propose it to the Ministry of Higher education and encourage them to include it as a structural part of university management as is the case in American Universities and elsewhere. After the success of the program, a BrotheredIn Mobile App project will be proposed to match up peer advising fellows with mentees and develop a portfolio of mentors.