TEXTUM Flux. Academic Mentoring Method
Academic mentoring constitutes a form of support aimed at facilitating the development of individuals and processes within educational and academic contexts. Its presence in higher education has been associated with personalized learning pathways, competency development, and different forms of academic and professional support.
Title: TEXTUM Flux. Academic Mentoring Method
Author: Vilma María Pérez Viñas
Content type: Conceptual article / methodological proposal for academic mentoring
Area: Academic mentoring
Purpose: To substantiate TEXTUM Flux as an academic mentoring method for supporting situated academic processes.
Core concepts: academic mentoring; situated mentoring; situated configuration; intervention architecture; academic processes; specialized expertise; intellectual responsibility; recursivity; responsible use of artificial intelligence.
Architecture: strategic diagnosis; methodological architecture; guided development; academic optimization; editorial preparation; academic defense.
Principles: situated mentoring; flexibility; recursivity; ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence; academic rigor.
Contribution: Articulation of a stable mentoring architecture with situated configurations and recursive mentoring dynamics.
Outcomes: Direct outcomes related to the goals of the process and derived outcomes associated with learning and the development of capacities.
Relationship to TEXTUM: Explains the method through which TEXTUM develops its academic mentoring proposal.
INTRODUCTION
Academic mentoring constitutes a form of support aimed at facilitating the development of individuals and processes within educational and academic contexts. Its presence in higher education has been associated with personalized learning pathways, competency development, and different forms of academic and professional support. However, the diversity of conceptions, functions, and forms of implementation has made it difficult to establish a single and sufficiently integrated definition of the concept.
A systematic review of 106 studies on mentoring in higher education identified precisely this conceptual diversity and examined the definitions, characteristics, and forms of measurement used in research. Based on the integration of the available evidence, Nuis et al. (2023) developed a broad conceptualization of mentoring and analyzed characteristics relevant to the design and development of mentoring programs. The literature reviewed therefore shows a diverse practice whose functions and forms of support are related to the needs of the individuals being mentored and to the characteristics of the contexts in which mentoring takes place.
This diversity is particularly relevant when mentoring is directed toward complex academic processes. In these contexts, support may involve the analysis of situations, decision-making, the construction and revision of academic productions, the resolution of difficulties, methodological strengthening, scientific communication, or preparation for an academic defense. Needs may change throughout the process and generate new decisions, actions, and mentoring relationships.
From this perspective, academic mentoring can be understood as a situated process involving specialized knowledge, expertise, decisions, actions, productions, relationships, and specific conditions. The relevance of mentoring depends on the articulation of these elements and their correspondence with the purpose and goals that guide each process.
On this basis, TEXTUM develops its own conception of academic mentoring, organizing mentoring through a stable architecture while allowing its application to be configured according to the uniqueness and evolution of each situation.
TEXTUM Flux constitutes the proposal through which TEXTUM structures its conception of academic mentoring. Its application takes place through situated mentoring configurations involving specialized knowledge, methodological expertise, mentoring, reflection, decision-making, and the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence. The person being mentored participates actively in the process and retains intellectual responsibility for the decisions and productions they develop.
The objective of this article is to substantiate TEXTUM Flux as an academic mentoring method by defining its identity, nature, principles, situated configuration, intervention architecture, dynamics, roles, use of resources—including artificial intelligence—and outcomes, with the purpose of establishing an articulated conception of support for situated academic processes.
IDENTITY AND NATURE OF TEXTUM FLUX
TEXTUM Flux is an academic mentoring method oriented toward specialized support for situated academic processes.
Its identity is expressed through an architecture of six functionally differentiated and interrelated intervention areas, which makes it possible to organize mentoring according to the characteristics, purposes, goals, and evolution of each process.
Its function is to guide and support processes in which a person develops a purpose, a goal, or a task and requires specialized knowledge to analyze, decide, construct, strengthen, communicate, or sustain their progress and outcomes.
The architecture of the method comprises:
Strategic Diagnosis
Methodological Architecture
Guided Development
Academic Optimization
Editorial Preparation
Academic Defense
Each area has its own function and establishes relationships with the others. Functional differentiation makes it possible to clarify the contribution of each area, while their articulation makes it possible to understand the mentoring process as a dynamic whole.
The architecture provides stability to the method; the situated configuration determines the specific form its application takes in each process.
Foundation
TEXTUM Flux is grounded in a conception of academic mentoring as specialized support for situated academic processes, in which knowledge, expertise, decisions, actions, productions, and outcomes are dynamically related.
The method articulates three fundamental contributions:
Specialized knowledge, which provides foundations and criteria for understanding and guiding the process.
The mentor's intervention, which contributes analysis, questions, guidance, alternatives, critical evaluation, well-founded suggestions, and feedback.
The activity of the person being mentored, who analyzes, decides, constructs, evaluates, and assumes responsibility for their process and its outcomes.
This articulation establishes a complementary relationship in which specialized expertise guides the process while the person being mentored retains decision-making capacity and intellectual responsibility.
Purpose
The purpose of TEXTUM Flux is to contribute to the development of the purposes, goals, and tasks that guide the academic process of the person being mentored, fostering analysis, decision-making, action, evaluation, and adjustment according to the characteristics, needs, and conditions of that process.
The specific purpose is determined by the configuration of each process and may be expressed through the construction, transformation, resolution, strengthening, communication, or sustaining of whatever constitutes the goal of the mentoring process.
Object of intervention
The object of intervention of TEXTUM Flux is the situated academic process in which a person develops a purpose, a goal, or a task and requires specialized support to analyze, decide, construct, strengthen, communicate, or sustain their progress and outcomes.
PRINCIPLES GUIDING TEXTUM FLUX
The principles guide the configuration and functioning of TEXTUM Flux across all its intervention areas.
Situated mentoring: mentoring begins with the purpose, needs, and specific conditions of each person and each process to configure support that is appropriate to the situation.
Flexibility: the intervention adapts to the needs and evolution of the process, providing responses and alternatives that enable progress while maintaining coherence with its purpose and goals.
Recursivity: the process allows decisions, analyses, and productions to be revisited in response to new evidence, perspectives, or needs, thereby supporting their review, deepening, and reconfiguration.
Ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence: artificial intelligence is incorporated as a resource to facilitate and expand analysis, exploration, construction, and revision through appropriate, critical, verifiable uses that respect academic integrity and responsibility.
Academic rigor: decisions, analyses, arguments, and productions are developed through well-founded knowledge, coherence, relevance, and academic rigor.
Taken together, these principles guide the relevance, adaptability, revision, responsibility, and academic rigor of mentoring.
The following figure presents the general architecture and functioning of TEXTUM Flux.
Fig. 1. General architecture of TEXTUM Flux.
SITUATED CONFIGURATION OF MENTORING
The situated configuration constitutes the specific form that mentoring takes in each process. It is configured through the articulation of:
purpose + goal + task + participants + resources + relationships + conditions.
These elements determine the specific form that mentoring takes.
Purpose: defines the meaning that guides the intervention and makes it possible to understand why the mentoring process is undertaken.
Goal: specifies what the person being mentored intends to achieve within the process.
Task: expresses the actions and productions through which progress toward the goal is made.
Participants: encompasses the people involved in the academic mentoring process and the functions they perform.
Resources: includes the knowledge, sources, tools, technologies, and means available for developing the process.
Relationships: encompasses the forms of interaction, communication, guidance, collaboration, and feedback established throughout mentoring.
Conditions: includes the academic, temporal, institutional, and contextual circumstances that influence the development of the process.
The seven elements are interrelated and may change throughout mentoring. Their articulation configures the specific form that the method takes in each situation.
The architecture of the method remains stable, while the situated configuration may change according to the evolution of the process.
ARCHITECTURE OF TEXTUM FLUX
The architecture of TEXTUM Flux consists of six intervention areas. Each has a differentiated function and contributes to the functioning of the method in relation to the others.
Strategic Diagnosis
Function: situating the academic process.
Strategic diagnosis makes it possible to situate the academic process within its specific context by understanding the purpose, goal, and task that guide it; the progress achieved; the needs and difficulties present; the resources available; the conditions in which it develops; and the possibilities for action.
This understanding provides a basis for determining mentoring priorities, assessing intervention needs, and configuring actions appropriate to each situation.
Methodological Architecture
Function: configuring and articulating the academic process.
Methodological architecture makes it possible to analyze and organize the components of the process, their relationships, and the decisions that structure it, making explicit the necessary correspondences among purpose, problem, objectives, foundations, methods, procedures, outcomes, and other elements relevant to the nature of the process.
Its development supports the construction of a methodologically coherent structure and provides criteria for guiding subsequent decisions and actions, as well as for identifying relationships that require strengthening, adjustment, or reconfiguration.
Guided Development
Function: driving the construction and advancement of the academic process.
Guided development is realized through the actions and productions that enable progress toward defined goals, in accordance with the methodological configuration and the conditions of the process. Within this area, mentoring may incorporate analysis, guiding questions, alternatives, suggestions, feedback, and critical evaluation, while the person being mentored carries out the actions and develops the corresponding productions.
Development generates evidence of progress and makes it possible to identify new needs for analysis, decision-making, or adjustment that may require the intervention of other areas or a return to previously adopted decisions.
Academic Optimization
Function: strengthening the quality and soundness of the process and its outcomes.
Academic optimization makes it possible to critically examine the progress and productions developed in order to assess their coherence, grounding, relevance, consistency, and quality according to the characteristics and requirements of the academic process.
This analysis makes it possible to confirm decisions, identify aspects that can be improved, and make the necessary adjustments. When evaluation reveals modifications affecting structural components of the process, it may generate a new configuration of elements previously developed.
Editorial Preparation
Function: configuring the academic communication of outcomes and productions.
Editorial preparation guides the organization and presentation of content intended for academic communication, considering discourse structure, scientific writing, clarity of exposition, argumentative coherence, and the editorial criteria applicable to the product and communication context.
Its development strengthens written expression and the academic presentation of outcomes, adapting them to the characteristics of the product, audience, and intended dissemination medium, while maintaining the connection between communication and the conceptual and methodological soundness of the work undertaken.
Academic Defense
Function: strengthening the capacity to academically sustain the process, its decisions, and its outcomes.
Academic defense involves preparation to communicate and substantiate the decisions, foundations, procedures, outcomes, and contributions of the work before academic interlocutors. It includes anticipating questions and possible objections, strengthening argumentation, organizing the presentation, and preparing well-founded responses.
This area makes it possible to integrate the main advances of the process and strengthen the ability to communicate and sustain the decisions adopted, while maintaining the intellectual responsibility of the person for the work they present and defend.
ARTICULATION AND DYNAMICS OF TEXTUM FLUX
The six areas maintain a differentiated functional identity while also establishing feedback relationships that make it possible to review, deepen, or reconfigure previous decisions when the evolution of the process requires it.
Thus, they constitute a stable intervention architecture, while the relationships among them create a dynamic, recursive, and situated movement.
The following figure provides an illustrative representation of the general functioning.
Figure. General functioning of TEXTUM Flux
Six functionally differentiated areas articulated according to the configuration of each academic process.
The functioning of the method may incorporate feedback movements such as:
optimization → architecture, when new evidence requires the reconfiguration of methodological decisions.
optimization → development, when actions and productions need to be modified or strengthened.
editorial preparation → optimization, when product development reveals areas requiring strengthening.
defense → optimization, when questions, objections, or arguments identify aspects requiring further development.
defense → development, when argumentative preparation requires productions to be expanded or strengthened.
development → diagnosis, when the evolution of the process transforms the understanding of the situation.
Returning to an area means continuing the process from a transformed situation, incorporating the new evidence, decisions, and conditions generated during mentoring.
The internal dynamics of the process may be expressed as:
analysis → decision → action → evidence → evaluation → adjustment → analysis
This movement may occur within any of the areas and may be repeated according to the needs and evolution of the process, since the six areas constitute the general architecture, while this cycle explains how work moves within that architecture.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE ACADEMIC MENTORING PROCESS
Academic mentoring developed through TEXTUM Flux articulates two fundamental positions: the mentor and the person being mentored.
Role of the mentor
The mentor's role consists of contributing specialized knowledge and expert judgment through situation analysis; the formulation of questions; guidance; critical evaluation; identification of alternatives; well-founded suggestions; feedback; and support throughout the process.
The purpose is to contribute to a better understanding of the situation, the evaluation of alternatives, the substantiation of decisions, and progress in relation to the person's purpose and goals.
Role of the person being mentored
The role of the person being mentored consists of actively participating in the process through analysis; decision-making; carrying out actions; developing academic products; evaluating outcomes; reviewing decisions; and critically incorporating guidance. The person being mentored also retains intellectual responsibility for the work.
The relationship between these two positions is based on complementarity: the mentor contributes specialized knowledge and expertise, while the person being mentored contributes their purpose, context, decisions, actions, and responsibility for the process.
RESOURCES AND ETHICAL AND RESPONSIBLE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
TEXTUM Flux integrates resources that expand the possibilities for analysis, exploration, construction, revision, and communication throughout mentoring.
Artificial intelligence constitutes a cross-cutting resource of the method, whose use is determined according to the purpose, needs, and conditions of each situated configuration. Methodological orientation is developed through expert judgment, the purpose of the academic process, and the well-founded decisions of the person being mentored.
The contribution of artificial intelligence may take different forms depending on the area in which it is used:
Strategic diagnosis: organization of information, exploration of perspectives, identification of patterns, and formulation of questions.
Methodological Architecture: exploration of alternatives, comparison of relationships, and review of formulations and coherence.
Guided Development: support for the organization, construction, analysis, and revision of productions.
Academic Optimization: identification of possible inconsistencies, comparison of arguments, exploration of objections, and critical review.
Editorial Preparation: support for organization, language review, structuring, and adaptation of the academic product.
Academic Defense: simulation of questions, exploration of objections, and argumentative preparation.
The incorporation of AI is developed through five conditions:
Relevance and intentionality, according to the purpose of the activity.
Critical evaluation, to examine the usefulness and quality of its contributions.
Verification, through the checking of information, arguments, and outcomes.
Intellectual responsibility: the person being mentored retains responsibility for the decisions they make and intellectual authorship of the productions they develop. The use of artificial intelligence as a supporting resource does not replace their judgment, decision-making, or intellectual responsibility.
Transparency and integrity, through compliance with applicable academic and editorial standards.
AI functions as a collaborative resource within the mentoring process by expanding the possibilities for exploration, analysis, and work, without replacing specialized expertise or human decision-making.
MENTORING OUTCOMES
The outcomes of mentoring are determined in relation to the purpose, goal, and conditions of each situated configuration.
Direct outcomes: express what is constructed, transformed, resolved, strengthened, communicated, or sustained during mentoring.
Depending on the configuration of the process, they may include: a configured or reconfigured methodological architecture; a well-founded methodological decision; improved problem delimitation; a resolved methodological difficulty; a strengthened research process; a developed academic production; a prepared scientific product; strengthened argumentation; a prepared publication; and a prepared academic defense.
The nature of the outcome depends on the purpose and goal that guide each process.
Derived outcomes: are those that may emerge as a consequence of the mentoring process.
They may include greater autonomy; strengthened decision-making capacity; appropriation of methodological criteria; methodological learning; deeper understanding of the process; strengthened argumentative capacity; or greater confidence in communicating and sustaining academic decisions.
These outcomes depend on the situated configuration and the specific evolution of the process. Their presence and scope may vary across different mentoring experiences.
CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTION OF TEXTUM FLUX
TEXTUM Flux articulates a conception of academic mentoring based on the relationship between structure and flexibility, differentiation and articulation, specialized guidance and the responsibility of the person being mentored.
Its conceptual contribution is expressed through the articulation of a stable intervention architecture with situated mentoring configurations. The architecture provides a recognizable structure for organizing mentoring, while the situated configuration determines the specific form that the process takes according to its purposes, goals, tasks, participants, resources, relationships, and conditions.
The differentiation of six areas makes it possible to clarify the specific functions of mentoring without fragmenting the process. Their articulation makes it possible to understand mentoring as a dynamic whole in which processes of review, deepening, and reconfiguration may occur.
The proposal also incorporates a differentiated conception of responsibility: the mentor contributes knowledge and specialized expertise, while the person being mentored retains decision-making capacity and intellectual responsibility for the process and its productions.
Artificial intelligence is integrated as a cross-cutting resource that facilitates and expands academic work. Its use is linked to the purpose of each activity and to conditions of relevance, critical evaluation, verification, intellectual responsibility, transparency, and integrity.
In this sense, TEXTUM Flux provides a conceptual and functional architecture for organizing support for academic processes without reducing their development to a single sequence. The method maintains a stable structure while allowing each process to configure its own dynamics according to its characteristics and evolution.
CONCLUSIONS
TEXTUM Flux is configured as an academic mentoring method oriented toward specialized support for situated academic processes. Its conception articulates a recognizable architecture with the capacity to adapt to the purposes, goals, tasks, participants, resources, relationships, and conditions that characterize each process.
Mentoring is conceived as a complementary relationship among specialized knowledge, guiding intervention, and the responsible activity of the person being mentored. The mentor contributes expertise, analysis, guidance, and feedback, while the person being mentored retains decision-making capacity and intellectual responsibility for the process and its outcomes.
The method's architecture, organized into six functionally differentiated areas, makes it possible to structure different intervention functions without establishing a single development pathway. Their articulation supports a recursive dynamic in which analysis, decision, action, evidence, evaluation, and adjustment may generate new needs for analysis and reconfiguration.
Situated configuration constitutes the principle that makes it possible to concretize this architecture in each process. In this way, TEXTUM Flux maintains a stable methodological identity while responding to the uniqueness, evolution, and specific conditions of mentoring situations.
Artificial intelligence is incorporated as a cross-cutting resource that expands the possibilities for exploration, analysis, construction, revision, and communication. Its use requires methodological judgment, critical evaluation, verification, and intellectual responsibility to remain guiding references throughout the process.
Academic mentoring outcomes likewise acquire a situated character. They may be manifested in transformations of the process, decisions, productions, and outcomes, as well as in learning and capacities that emerge during development, according to the characteristics and evolution of each situation.
Overall, TEXTUM Flux contributes a conception of academic mentoring grounded in the articulation of structure and flexibility, relationship and differentiation, specialized guidance, and the responsibility of the person being mentored. Its principal contribution is to provide a conceptual and functional architecture capable of organizing diverse academic processes without reducing their development to a predetermined sequence.
REFERENCES
Nuis, W., Segers, M., & Beausaert, S. (2023). Conceptualizing mentoring in higher education: A systematic literature review. Educational Research Review, 41, 100565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100565