This article contributes to current discussions on the effectiveness of mentoring as a gender equality tool, but also focuses on the emotions and bodily (dis)comforts mentoring produces in addition to linguistic discourses, thus offering a novel take on how the tool operates.Drawing on a case study of a Danish mentoring program aimed at establishing the organizational space of leadership as more gender equal, the article demonstrates how, in producing shame and (un)happiness, mentoring (re)produces leadership as an organizational space dominated by masculine norms and work practices. The findings of the article support literature arguing that mentoring is an ineffective gender equality tool. However, the article does not entirely discard mentoring for this purpose, instead suggesting that scholars and practitioners look to literature on queered forms of mentoring for inspiration on how to use mentoring as a tool that carries the potential of truly promoting gender equality.

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In education, the child is often observed as a potential to be shaped and realised. In this article, we analyse the educational program, First Lego League. Surprisingly, its aim is not simply to realise a potential, but to potentialise the child to become unlimited potential. Children should become ‘a force for change’, and they are told that ‘you can be anything, just do it!’. To implement this program, First Lego League develops a transition medium that consists of non-representative, presentational symbols such as play, fun, innovation, dance and discovery. Such a program does not come without costs. Our analysis reveals how negativity is negated, knowledge is devalued and the children’s selfnarratives are decoupled. This could result in children being confronted with paradoxical demands, which are difficult to navigate. Analytically, the article draws on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory and in particular his concepts of form and medium.