Paradoxically transformative and fragmentary: invigorating social justice leadership within academe through reverse mentoring

Purpose Recent calls have urged university leaders to make concerted efforts to transform the legacy of colonised structures and reinvigorate approaches for addressing racial inequality. Reverse mentoring for racial equality, where minoritised employees mentor leaders, is an innovative, imperfect, yet necessary intervention to advocate anti-racism and challenge power imbalances in universities. I defend the nuanced ways in which it can support social justice through working with leaders to destabilise the centrality of white normativity in academia. Design/methodology/approach In this conceptual article, I use quotes from social justice figures and juxtapose them with anti-discriminatory theory and mentoring scholarship. I also leverage my own experiences as a mentor to engage in critical reflexivity about reverse mentoring of this nature. Findings I demonstrate how reverse mentoring is an impactful way of instigating leadership for anti-racist social justice. I highlight how it forces academia to confront uncomfortable truths about power relationships, unveil how it is neither politically nor epistemologically neutral and thereby reveal its complexities and efficacy for social justice leadership. The article culminates in requisite actionable steps for how reverse mentoring models could be implemented and potential future research directions. Originality/value Through adopting critical reflexivity that interrogates systemic biases, assumptions and norms, I frame reverse mentoring for racial equality as paradoxically transformative and fragmentary. In this sense, it is capable of catalysing essential, though incomplete, yet necessary progress towards social justice.