Peer shadowing graduate assistantships: an autoethnographic study

ABSTRACT The unique nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many typical graduate assistantships from occurring due to school-building closures, virtual classes, and stay-at-home orders. As such, the authors address the increase of ‘shadowing’ graduate assistantships at a large land-grant institution. To uphold the governmental stay-at-home regulations per COVID-19, shadowing provided first-year students with exposure and access to more experienced graduate student instructors (‘the shadowed’) who taught undergraduate and graduate coursework. In this autoethnographic study, the authors investigate the following questions: (1) In what ways did our experiences align with Mentoring Enactment Theory and Social Exchange Theory ? (2) How might we better align our conception of shadowing to both theories? The article finishes with modifications to the theories in light of the shadowing experiences.