About Mentoring

As illustrated by the excerpts below, mentoring can be defined in many ways and utilize a variety of approaches. Consequently, it is critical that the persons engaged in an individual mentoring arrangement reach agreements on goals, priority activities, and the nature of the professional relationship.

• "Mentoring is a unique one-to-one teaching and learning method that incorporates the basic elements of collaboration, challenge, critical reflection, and praxis." (Galbraith & Zelenak, 1991)


• "The ideal mentoring relationship can be characterized as a series of mentor-mentee dialogues noted for collaborative critical thinking and planning, mutual participation in specific goal setting and decision making, shared evaluation regarding the results of actions, and joint reflection on the worth of areas identified for progress." (Golian & Galbraith, 1996)


• "Mentoring is a process within a contextual setting. It involves a relationship between a more knowledgeable and experienced individual and a less experienced individual. Mentoring provides professional networking, counseling, guiding, instructing modeling and sponsoring. Also it is a developmental mechanism (personal, professional, and psychological). Mentoring is a social and reciprocal relationship and provides an identity transformation for both mentor and protégé." (Golian & Galbraith, 1996)


• Mentor has been used synonymously to mean wise teacher, guide and friend. (Galbraith & James, 2004)

(Excerpts compiled by F.S. Laanan, 2007)