Defining mentoring: a literature review of issues, types, and applications

Abstract

This literature review of contemporary mentoring delineates mentoring definitions and anchors these with explanatory discourse. Select empirical studies spanning 1983–2019 were analyzed, with a focus on education across grade levels. Alternative mentoring issues, types, and applications, also located, are integral to this discussion. While researchers describe what mentoring is, it is also important to clarify what it is not. Traditional definitions of mentoring have been losing traction, with mentoring alternatives forging new possibilities within changing learning and work environments. Contexts of mentoring include a personal–professional relationship to an educational process; an organizational, cultural, and global context; and a systemic reform strategy that builds human capacity. This complex definitional terrain is situated within theoretical mentoring frameworks. Mentoring as deep, equitable learning with social transformative value is illustrated. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and other educational examples serve this purpose. Challenges to the field from alternative mentoring theory are discussed for transparency around meanings of mentoring and contributions that advance socially just relationships, organizations, and cultures. The article provides a timely and needed framework to discriminate and differentiate mentoring from other developmental relationships.

Key issues in professionalizing mentoring practices

“…63 In other domains, the same-gender matching practice appeared to be of little consequence for program outcomes. 64,65 Mentorship structures or formats also create idiographic program characteristics that can influence effectiveness. For example, differences in program effectiveness have been tied to whether a program relies on a classic one-on-one format, in which one mentor and one mentee are matched into a mentoring dyad, 66 or on alternative formats that match more than one mentor and mentee.…”

“…Positive effects have been documented for one-on-one and groupmentoring formats. 11,65 Findings from studies of individual formats suggest that each format has advantages and disadvantages, such as an easier facilitation of relationship building in one-on-one mentoring 71 or a better provision of networking opportunities in group mentoring. 72,73 Systematic comparisons of various mentoring formats remain rare, however.…”

“…[82][83][84] Effective mentoring relies on mentors and mentees having clear ideas about what mentoring entails, how it is distinct from other support measures, and what expectations for a given mentoring experience are realistic. 65,81,10 All stakeholders need to understand that mentoring is relational and developmental, has instrumental (e.g., careeroriented) and psychosocial functions, and includes phases and transitions in which mentoring roles will change. 6,65 The aforementioned examples of mentor roles will apply differently during different phases of mentoring.…”

“…65,81,10 All stakeholders need to understand that mentoring is relational and developmental, has instrumental (e.g., careeroriented) and psychosocial functions, and includes phases and transitions in which mentoring roles will change. 6,65 The aforementioned examples of mentor roles will apply differently during different phases of mentoring. 6,80 Moreover, it is important to consider when planning a mentoring program that mentors will show preferences for different roles and accordingly invest differing amounts of energy in certain roles.…”

Spaces of possibilities: a theoretical analysis of mentoring from a regulatory perspective

“…The usage of poetic terms derived from Greek mythology in modern science is not without its problems—in particular as the myth itself is subject to a variety of interpretations. The layers of interpretation and meaning contained within the modern term have been noted; “the general use of the word [mentoring] probably is via later popular romances, in which Mentor played a larger part than he does in Homer.” 25 These heterogeneous lexical lineages have likely contributed to the coexistence of competing mentoring definitions within the scientific literature 26 . The various definitions of mentoring are best understood as having more of a family resemblance, in the sense set out by Wittgenstein, 27 and make it, therefore, difficult to resolve the mentoring paradox.…”