Stone Center Relational Cultural Theory: A Window on Relational Mentoring

Relational Mentoring Episodes as a Catalyst for Empowering Protégés

“…Megginson, Clutterbuck, Garvey, Stokes, and Garrett-Harris (2006) called for an understanding of mentoring moments, specifically investigating what leads to "transformation in the mentoring conversation or in the spaces between dialogues" (p. 3). Fletcher and Ragins (2007) stated that studying developmental relationships at the level of one "mutually enhancing growth interaction" (p. 381) has the ability to bring clarity for defining what constitutes mentoring. There has been a great debate and disagreement about what actually constitutes mentoring, coaching, sponsorship, and apprenticeship; however, they all fall under the umbrella of developmental interactions or relationships (D'Abate, Eddy, & Tannenbaum, 2003;Douglas & McCauley, 1999).…”

Tangled Threads: Mentoring within a community of practice

“…We have suggested there is a feminist cast to our experience (Belenky et al, 1986;Fletcher & Ragins, 2007;McGuire & Reger, 2003;Noddings, 1992) but without further research we have no way of knowing how our experience may differ from men's experiences within the NAEA or other professional organizations. This has been a limited, exploratory case study of one particular group of women.…”

“…McKeen and Bujaki (2007) argue that gender issues must be addressed in research on mentoring, stating that "a masculine model of mentoring considers the relationship from an instrumental perspective -what the relationship can do -while a feminine model of mentoring looks at the relationships from an affective or relational point of view -what the relationship can be" (p. 199). This is a theme that appears in notions of peer, mutual and reciprocal mentoring that have become foci for research (Fletcher & Ragins, 2007;McGuire & Reger, 2003;McKeen & Bujaki, 2007;Ragins & Verbos, 2007). Ragins defines relational mentoring as "an interdependent and generative developmental relationship that promotes mutual growth, learning and development within the career context" (Ragins 2005 as cited in Ragins & Verbos,p.…”

“…In a collaborative and reflective examination of the professional and personal relationships that we have developed over a 20-year time span, we have come to understand more deeply the role this organization has in providing a venue for developing a strong community of practice in that members "share a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis" (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p. 4) and how in creating this community, we have also created a community of mentors. One of the purposes of this paper is to describe the kinds of relational (Fletcher & Ragins, 2007;Ragins & Verbos, 2007) and reciprocal mentoring that developed over time within a group of women brought together through their interest in art education for young children (children 0-8 years of age) and the impact this has had on their professional and personal lives. Apparent within this mentoring is an ethic of care (Noddings, 1992).…”

A self-determination theory perspective on mentoring relationships at work

“…Relational mentoring shows that current studies ignore a large array of phenomena associated with mentoring. For example, traditional mentoring research tends to ignore relational skills such as empathy, authenticity, and vulnerability, while these are special research areas in relational mentoring (Fletcher & Ragins, 2007).…”