The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - Issue 1 - Article 6 - Baccalaureate Accounting Student Mentors’ Social Representations of their Mentorship Experiences

Oct 15, 2026

Mentorship enhances engagement, participation, and understanding at work by building soft skills and leadership capacity. This study examines second- and third-year baccalaureate accounting students’ social representations of mentoring first-year accounting students. Using an exploratory qualitative approach with 34 semi-structured interviews, the research evaluates how a mandatory student peer mentorship project supports interpersonal communication, leadership development, and transferability to the workplace.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Research purpose and questions

Methodology

Key findings

The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Volume 7 | Issue 1 | Article 6 | | --- | --- | | 6-11-2016
Baccalaureate Accounting Student Mentors’Social Representations oftheir Mentorship Experiences
Vicky Roy
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, [vicky.roy@sait.ca](vicky.roy@sait.ca)
Patricia A. Brown
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, [patricia.brown@sait.ca](patricia.brown@sait.ca)
Follow this and additional works at: [http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea](http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea)
Part of the Accounting Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, and the Higher Education Commons [http://dx.doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2016.1.6](http://dx.doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2016.1.6) | | Recommended Citation Roy, Vicky and Brown, Patricia A. (2016) "Baccalaureate Accounting Student Mentors’ Social Representations oftheir Mentorship Experiences," The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 6. DOI: [http://dx.doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2016.1.6](http://dx.doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2016.1.6) Available at: [http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol7/iss1/6](http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol7/iss1/6) Baccalaureate Accounting Student Mentors’Social Representations of their Mentorship Experiences Abstract Mentorship has been shown to enhance engagement, participation, and understanding of the workplace through the development of soft-skills and leadership capacity. This research identifies and describes the social representations of second and third year Baccalaureate accounting students relating to their experiences in mentoring first year accounting students. We used an exploratory research method based on a qualitative analysis of 34 semi-structured interviews. Our research intends to answer these question: To what extent is a mandatory Student Peer Mentorship Project useful for second and third year Baccalaureate accounting students in developing their interpersonal and communication skills and leadership capacity?; and How can this experience be transferable to the workplace? The main results show that the mentoring experience has provided Baccalaureate students’ with the opportunity to develop their soft-skills, both interpersonal and communication skills, and has improved their leadership capacity. They took diverse actions to motivate their mentees to succeed, drawing on their own past experience of the school, program, courses, and their professors. They provided mentees with information on what to expect in the first semester in their courses as well as where, how, and when to study. These students mentioned that their intrinsic motivation, their personal satisfaction, and their leadership capacity had increased by helping and supporting their mentees. Also, they felt that they improved their communication skills through the ability to provide information and meet and support new accounting students. Finally, their experience seems as valuable for them as for their mentees and is transferable to the workplace. Il a été démontré que le mentorat améliorait l’engagement, la participation et la compréhension dans le milieu de travail grâce au développement de compétences non techniques et de capacités d’encadrement. Cette recherche identifie et décrit les représentations sociales d’étudiants de deuxième et troisième année de premier cycle en comptabilité reliées à leur expérience d’avoir agi à titre de mentors pour des étudiants de première année en comptabilité. Nous avons utilisé une méthode de recherche exploratoire basée sur l’analyse qualitative de 34 interviews semi-structurées. Notre recherche a pour but de répondre aux questions suivantes: 1) dans quelle mesure un projet de mentorat par les pairs obligatoire serait-il utile aux étudiants de deuxièmeet troisième année de premier cycle en comptabilité et les aiderait à développer leurs compétences interpersonnell

FAQs

What is the purpose of the study described in the abstract?

The study identifies and describes how second- and third-year baccalaureate accounting students represent their mentoring experiences with first-year accounting students.

How was the research conducted?

An exploratory research method was used with qualitative analysis of 34 semi-structured interviews.

What main results does the abstract report?

Mentoring helped develop soft skills and improved leadership capacity; it also increased intrinsic motivation, personal satisfaction, and communication skills, and the experience was transferable to the workplace.

Oct 15, 2026

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