Facilitators: Detlef Pech, Dirk Postma, Òscar Prieto-Flores
Abstract
It is currently hardly possible to keep track of the multiplicity of mentoring programmes. The heterogeneity of the different programmes and the diversity of social groups involved as mentors and mentees is impressive. In spite of the plausibility of each particular project and its respective goals, there are scarcely empirical findings on the subject so far. Even more so, on a comprehensive level the question of which problems need to be addressed foremost in the context of empirical research on mentoring hasn’t even been agreed on so far.
At the same time there is a need for clarification on all levels, such as the conditions of the programs or their effects – for example with regard to questions of professionalization of educational agents –, but also on the level of mentors, as well as the question how far mentees actually perceive and receive the intended content of the programme.
Main Goals of the Workshop
In this panel current research projects, located in the context of mentoring, are going to be presented and discussed through short impulses. Methodic questions focusing on the distinctiveness of this field of research will also be discussed.
In the second part of the session we will discuss the overall question: what goals could a European mentoring research community serve? We can share our ideas about the specific means and ends of a research community, supporting us all in bringing forward mentoring issues into academic discourse and evaluation practices. To be more specific: we can study particular opportunities and ‘calls’ that enable us to participate in collaborative research projects.
Target Audience
The workshop is designed for scholars involved in mentoring as a field of research as well as practitioners, funders and policy makers who are interested in research and evaluation strategies.
Presenter at Research Panel
- Bernadine Brady (NUI Galway, Ireland): Youth Mentoring in Ireland: An overview of 13 years of Collaborative Research with the Foróige BBBS Programme in Ireland.
- Beatrice Kollinger (Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Germany): Trauma-Sensitive Learning.
- Esther N. Moszeik (Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany): Guiding Children through the Jungle of Everyday Life. Research and Best Practice from the Mentoring Programme Baloo and You.
- Alexandra Telitsyna (Big Brothers Big Sisters Russia, Moscow, Russia): One-to-one Mentoring for Disadvantaged Children in Putin’s Russia.
- Heide Busse (University of Bristol, UK): A Typology of Youth Mentoring Programmes.
- Tereza Brumovská (National University of Ireland, Ireland): Initial Motivation and its Impact on Quality and Dynamics in Formal Youth Mentoring Relationships: A Longitudinal Qualitative study.
- Hanne Vandermeerschen & Peter De Cuyper; HIVA-University of Leuven: Local network as the highway to success) Studying the added value of mentoring to work for highly skilled immigrants.
- Marisa Bergamin (University of Padua, Italy): Evaluation of the Mentor-UP Program: Can mentoring promote self-esteem and connectedness?
- Levi van Dam & Geer Jan Stams (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands): Natural Mentoring and the Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) Approach.