MENTORING IN EDUCATION – THE CONTOURS OF POSSIBLE TYPOLOGIES

Abstract

As a highly complex relational phenomenon, mentoring and practice which are jointly carried out by an intern and a mentor, attracted the attention of researchers in different fields. With the aim to draw attention to this part of the educational practice in our environment, we carried out a research which focuses on issues of internship and mentoring in education. Although our attention was focused primarily on the issues related to understanding the concept of internships and mentoring and how the offered solutions would reflect in the practice of interns and mentors, research has unexpectedly resulted in some additional findings – the possible types of mentoring in our educational context.Shown results were achieved after analysis of the transcribed material collected in individual interviews, conducted by ten mentors. All the discovered and different approaches to mentoring work are based on an analysis of responses and interpretations that were given by the mentors themselves, and related to: understanding the functions of mentoring; expectations from the interns; understanding the role of interns and mentors; understanding the process of learning and the importance of planning the work with interns. Interpreting the way mentors understand aforesaid and describing specific relation with their interns, we have selected mentors who have demonstrated a consistent linguistic experiential patterns and positions, mutually so different, that they can make the contours of different types of mentoring. In the paper these specific types are identified as: adhoc, formal and development mentoring.