For a society to endure, it is necessary to preserve the knowledge, beliefs, and ways of living that give shape to the identity of a group—what anthropologists call culture. One of the oldest and most effective ways to keep what has been learned from being forgotten is through face-to-face interaction between older and younger members of a community.

Good Mentoring offers a detailed analysis of the way mentors transmit not only knowledge and skills, but guiding values that support good work—work that is excellent in quality, socially responsible, and meaningful to its practitioners. In doing so, mentors foster the professional integrity that benefits society as a whole, as well as the practitioners themselves and the fields in which they work. Drawing on a first-of-its-kind study by the GoodWork Project—a cooperative enterprise by Harvard, Stanford, and Claremont Graduate University—the authors show how the cultivation of professional ethics and excellence depends on teachers and mentors and the learning environments they foster. In profiles of three lineages of scientists who passed their professional skills, values, and practices down through generations, the book reveals what constitutes successful mentoring in science and beyond.

The authors identify six key dimensions of supportive mentoring:

• A balance between intellectual freedom and guidance

• Consistent availability and involvement

• An atmosphere and resources for fostering development

• Positive feedback that is specific and encouraging

• Treatment of graduate students as respected collaborators

• Individualized attention to the student

Good Mentoring includes practical advice to mentors, mentees, and institutions where graduate and professional education occurs, and suggestions for future directions for researchers.