Influence of Postmodernism on mentoring among University student leadership: A case study of selected Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Mentoring is one of the key strategies for developing university students’ academic, social, professional and leadership capabilities. With globalization, university students today are exposed to multiple worldviews and how this exposure influences them is something anyone seeking to mentor them must contend with. One of the worldviews increasingly being embraced among the students is postmodernism. This research sought to explore how mentoring as a leadership development strategy among university student leaders works in the context of postmodernism. Postmodernism is conceptualised as a worldview characterised by ‘questioning’ and thus does not affirm the existence of a universal frame of reference for the mentoring endeavour. The research therefore sought to establish the influence of five themes of postmodernism; pluralism, non-objectivism, deconstruction, cynicism and community on mentoring among university student leaders in Kenya. The study employed a descriptive case study design. The study was conducted among 112 student leaders comprising of 91 leaders from Kenyatta University and 31 from Daystar University. The respondents were identified through purposive and snow ball sampling techniques. A mixed method approach was adopted and data was collected using questionnaires with both closed and open-ended questions. The data was collected between October 2020 and April 2021. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data, involving systematic identification, organization, and clustered of data collected into meaningful summaries. Quantitative data was cleaned, coded, summarized and then presented using descriptive statistics including frequency tables, proportions and percentages. Pearson’s corelation analysis was used to establish the relationships between various variables under investigation. It was established that postmodernism significantly influenced mentoring among university student leaders pointing to the fact that students who upheld postmodernism had preference for higher relational intensity, reciprocity and adaptability in mentoring relationships. As such mentoring university students in the context of postmodernism should be more relational, experiential, reciprocal and adaptive. The study also proposed areas of further research. These include a survey of expressions of postmodernism among university student leaders, expanded scope to include more universities, a longitudinal rather than cross-sectional approach and a more detailed analysis of each of the themes of postmodernism and their influence on mentoring university student leaders.