Mentoring Relationships: an explanatory view
Source: Ray Pawson Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds
Abstract
Mentoring is one of those bright ideas that take a periodic grip on the imagination of the policy community. Everyone appreciates that one learns from experience and so much the better if one can trade on the wisdom of others. Here, then, is the kernel of the "mentoring movement". Creating a close relationship with a knowledge guide is seen as an all-purpose resource offering both opportunities for advancement and solutions to disadvantage. These are the small beginnings of a brainchild that has sprung through social and public policy, with mentoring programmes being initiated from the prison wing to the boardroom, and from the maternity ward to the hospice.
This paper pulls together some of the evidence on these interventions. The review, however, is not in the verdict business. Like any big idea, mentoring will have its time and place. Decision makers need to understand that the evidence does not yield a thumbs up or a thumbs down for mentoring, but only circumstantial and conditional truths. Accordingly, the focus here is on the mentoring relationship. What makes for an effective partnership between mentor and mentee? How does the relationship develop? Who is in the best position to offer support? Who is likely to benefit? These are explanatory tasks and the purpose of the synthesis is to answer them by forwarding a theory of mentoring relationships. The objective is to produce a model that will be helpful in implementing and targeting such programmes and, above all, in creating realistic expectations about what ca be achieved.
The review draws most of its evidence from empirical research on youth mentoring - the pairing of disadvantaged, and, often, disaffected youth with an experienced adult. This is perhaps mentoring's most challenging task and it throws into relief the kinds of social forces that a relationship has to withstand if it is to succeed. But since mentoring relationships are found in every walk of life, the review also looks at some very different schemes, the better to understand the dynamics of the partnerships. Accordingly, youth-on-youth peer support, workplace mentoring, and self-help interventions to support the ill are also examined, if in rather less detail.
In all of these situations the development of a bond between mentor and mentee can create the underlying momentum for change. Gains are almost always accorded in the affective sphere; strong emotional ties are often created. Sharing the experience of someone who has gone through the same agonies and triumphs is shown to be a point of resilience upon which to build. However, the evidence shows that partnerships cannot be forced and that they sometimes take the line of least resistance. The most disaffected on the streets and the most recalcitrant in the office often go unmentored. Mentoring does not always get to where it is most needed. What is more, mentors often have the wisdom but not the resources to spur major and long term changes. Close relationships, even ones voluntarily and graciously proffered, cannot sweep away the institutional and structural forces that hold sway of people's lives.
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