MENTORING : CORNERSTONE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING EXCELLENCE.

Mentoring partnerships, where a more experienced person assists a less experienced other to achieve a level of personal attainment, excellence and eminence not possessed previously, are well recognized (Carruthers, 1990; Alleman, 1991). These mentoring relationships range in nature and style from serendipitously initiated, informal duos to large scale, formally organized batches of pairings designed to contribute to the advancement of stipulated organizational goals in diverse workplaces and professions (Balint, Finlay, Groundwater-Smith, Long & Tinker, 1994). New directions include telementoring (Eisenman & Thornton, 1999; Matters, 2001) where mentoring dyads maintain contact via computer mounted personal video cameras, email, fax and mobile phones; and mentoring circles, where a series of mentors sequentially assist designated mentees (Bond, 1999).

Extensive research concerning mentoring's definition, roles, effects upon mentor and mentee participants and observable outcomes resulting from their relationships has been conducted during the last two decades. Considerable emphasis has been placed upon the importance of mentoring within organizations, citing its powerful effects upon induction, enculturation and continuing professional development processes and its contributions to the achievement of formally designated organisational goals (Clutterbuck, 1993; Bell, 1996).

By synthesizing generic factors integral to mentoring and six interrelated behavioural functions which Cohen (cited in Tomlinson, 1995) contends must be present for mentoring dyads to interact effectively, common ground has been achieved concerning recognition of the key elements of effective mentoring relationships. There must be

(1) a relationship emphasis initiated and maintained between the mentoring pair in order to establish mutual trust and respect;

(2) an information emphasis constructed within the partnership to facilitate the exchange of specific and cogent advice;

(3) a facilitative focus established between the duo so that alternative solutions to problem solving may be generated without personal restraint or external constraint;

(4) a confrontive focus implemented safely so that challenges and their attendant opportunities and conflicts are not dissipated before resolution;

(5) an expectation that the mentor will model appropriate behaviours which will contribute to the motivation of the mentee; and (6) encouragement for the mentee to express personal and professional visions which will promote successful initiative taking.

Encapsulating these elements concisely within external and internal spheres, Millennium Mentoring (Table 1), a kaleidoscopic whirlpool model of mentoring effectiveness, comprises five key layers : learning, context, partnerships, outcomes and education which intermingle to produce advanced knowledge, intellectual sophistication and extraordinary personal performances in both mentor and mentees. These factors are continually reshaped by myriads of tiered elements which influence mentoring's manifestations and the behaviours of its participants but do not diminish the transformational effects they have produced within them. Four major supporting components within its process facilitate the retention of these changes : (1) the intense nature of the mentoring experienced (intensity); (2) the quality and depth of learning which occurs (depth); (3) the extent of time expended on the mentoring experience (duration); (4) the emotions it arouses and the diversity of affective domains and environments which are created to protect its process (emotion).

Despite acknowledging the influential effect that mentoring has upon its participants and the necessity for it to be a "structured personal support for learning...which provide opportunities for self-renewal of vision and purpose" (Day, 1999 : 84), a reluctance to discuss its affective elements continues to exist which inhibits accurate introspection of the types of teaching and learning which occur during the mentoring process.

With sophisticated, extensive and new learning by mentors and mentees as its prime focus, mentoring combines theory with practical applications (Swanson & Arnold, 1996; Table 3). It is experiential, exciting and encourages stimulation, challenge, innovation and opportunities to use knowledge productively in self directed ways (Peterson, 1992; Reay, 1994). Importantly, mentoring develops abilities which are hidden and lie dormant within participant individuals. The catalytic mentoring process provides the context for the development of self actualizing individuals who are energized by their own intellectual growth. It is particularly valuable to mentees in their life quest for acceptable and successful definitions of self. Mentoring pairs are attracted to one another by the promise of heightened intellectual stimulation, innovative activities and perceived opportunities to achieve superior personal and/or professional practice. The complementary nature of their thinking, learning and working styles accompanied by similar values, attitudes and emotional responses generates enormous mutual respect. The meshing of their personalities provides colour, light, shade, texture and breadth to their partnerships. Mentors and mentees become changed and transformed. Mentoring adds another dimension to the inner worlds of mentees where they can test ideas, argue with one another and draw upon personal resources stimulated by the process. Mentors possess their own internal mechanisms which function in the same manner but have been honed and refined by a multiplicity of experiences. Mentors and mentees understand what is occurring inside of one another because each one has shared her/his emotions, intellectual insights, dreams, ambitions, success and failures without loss of mutual respect and trust.

Today it is acknowledged, directly or inferentially, that many people do not like to teach (Calderhead & Shorrock, 1997; Bond, 1999). In the recent past, popular wisdom dictated that everyone in the community could and would teach others therefore the art and skill of teaching was diminished by supposed commonality of purpose and ability. However, real teachers like to assist others to achieve their potential. Not everyone does. Teachers shape and transform the lives of others while simultaneously shaping and transforming their own. Not everyone can. Teachers are often mentors in disguise, constrained by barriers within classrooms and schools from adopting full mentoring roles until their future mentees (students) have moved on to other classes, schools, tertiary institutions or workplaces.

The one to one nature of mentoring permits more energy to be expended than in ordinary teaching. Mentors and mentees experience reciprocal intellectual attraction, excitement, optimism and encouragement. Mentors are referred to as live educational resources. They explain concepts concisely, precisely, with depth and rigour. Their explanations are tailored to the knowledge level of their mentees. Mentees interact by asking salient questions, providing solutions to problems and actually putting skills into practice almost immediately. Feedback on their performance is provided rapidly in tandem with opportunities to correct, amend, improve and hone skills which are presented with quick succession. Non verbal behaviours exchanged between the mentoring pair convey immediate and intense feelings, intuitions and insights. Silent motions such as a raised eyebrow, a shrug, a fleeting smile, transmit a variety of unspoken opinions such as approval, agreement, disdain, disbelief and assist the conduct of sensitive negotiations, planning or competitive situations because the mentoring partners in receipt of these signals adapt their behaviours to accommodate these non verbal suggestions.

In society, professions and workplaces, traditional, informal, life and personal mentors have received much attention (Kram & Bragar, 1991; Hurst & Wilkin, 1992; Turban & Dougherty, 1994; Boreen, Johnson, Niday & Potts, 2000). Recently, different types of mentor emerged and were noted (Matters,1998) adding weight to past theories that mentoring is more likely to be sought after and occur at life transition stages (Glaser & Strauss, 1971; Sheehy, 1977; Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson & McKee, 1978; Erickson, 1980; Gilligan, 1982) They are the

(1) continual mentor, one who oversees a mentee's career path from the beginning of a career in a specific organisation until the termination of the mentee's employment;

(2) complementary mentor, one who exhibits differences in learning, thinking and operational styles to those of the mentee and teaches the mentee to utilize these styles in appropriate situations without discarding the mentee's preferred styles;

(3) ingenious mentor, one who pairs consistently with the mentee to produce highly innovative, distinctly creative and intellectually exciting work which could not be produced individually by either member of the partnership;

(4) intermediate mentor, one who takes the place of the actual mentor, provides specialized advice, personal support and mentors the mentee until the mentor returns to the home context when the intermediate mentor reoccupies her/his formal role without detracting from the main mentoring relationship;

(5) eventual mentor, one who is constrained in some way from publicly performing the role of mentor in the original situation in which s/he encounters the mentee but maintains contact through limited communication until the situation passes and the pair may enjoy a full mentoring partnership without restraint;

(6) pivotal mentor, one who demonstrates the capacity to mentor less experienced colleagues in an organisation and/or a profession while simultaneously being mentored herself/ himself by one or more experienced personnel;

(7) intergenerational mentor, one who mentors across two generations within a family;

(8) inner mentor, created internally within a mentee or mentor by synthesizing the advice of a series of external mentors.

It is particularly important that those involved in education recognize the links between teaching, learning, mentors, mentees and mentoring experiences and their web- like connections throughout the life span of participants (Field & Field, 1994; Tomlinson, 1995; Bleach, 1999). For instance, pre-service teacher interns are assisted by co- teacher mentors (Odell & Huling, 2000) who treat them as colleagues, not students, during their internships which occur in their last phase of training after their final practica have been completed and rated; aspirant principals shadow experienced principals (Tin, 2001) who mentor them in the workplace and offer practical, on the spot, advice; secondary teachers and youth workers who put in countless out of hours work to mentor "at risk" students who drop out of school early and then are influenced to return to successfully complete TAFE courses; museum curator mentors who provide in-depth knowledge to adolescents concerning unusual aspects of science (such as palaeontology and ichthyology), motivating their mentees to pursue careers in related fields (Matters, 1993). It is important to recognize the extent to which the influence of mentoring upon teaching and learning emerges and recurs across an individual's life span (Table 2).

(early childhood-late adolescence-early adulthood-middle age)

Arts mentors and mentees emphasised the importance of the need to express themselves physically through dance from an early age (three to six years old). A love of music and a capacity for artistic rigour were necessary corollaries but the physicality of dance, intertwined with intellectual interpretation concomitant with creative expressiveness, were intrinsic imperatives to perform. Each one felt that s/he had to dance. There had been no external compulsion. Every one had encountered a situation where s/he knew that they might not be able to perform again. The results were catastrophic. Arts mentors and mentees recounted successful mentoring experiences which taught them how to combine their inner personal resources with cogent advice from their continual mentors to produce ever increasing resilience which enabled them to persevere, advance and then succeed. A dance mentor quietly outlined how an early mentor had shown him how to retain his motivation throughout times of setback, depression or spectacular success. In each of these instances, an individual has to manage the circumstances alone although many people will offer advice. "We had several external teachers, (well known performing arts identity) brought them out to Australia. One person showed me how not to let the hard side of dancing get the better of me. Surround myself with a little shell so that I couldn't see or hear what was going on. It was enough at my age (nineteen years old) then to keep me going. It doesn't seem very much but it has kept me going throughout the years. I remember it" XO. His continual mentor had been an internationally recognized dancer but her career had ended prematurely due to injury. She pursued her interest in dance and shared her expertise with others by conducting master classes for young dancers exhibiting high potential. The quality of emotion and gratitude in his voice prompted me to probe "when you were recalling this was her voice coming back to you?" "Most definitely!" XO was the reply. He acknowledged that no matter how difficult the affective atmosphere became he always had her voice within him to soothe and comfort. Coupled with his increasing emotional maturity and developing personal resilience, he could withdraw into himself for short periods in order to find the strength and motivation to carry on. While this procedure was understandable after enduring a personal setback or failure, it became intriguing when he emphasized the importance of this capacity to the achievement of his next outstanding success and ever escalating levels of professional and personal development. In one of the loneliest and most demanding of professions, he stressed that he was never alone. His early career mentor and subsequent others were always with him assisting his inner self to grow, develop mature and become more resilient. His inner mentor emerged and took its place among the throng.

As constant change envelops education it should be remembered that "mentoring is an unique one to one teaching and learning method that incorporates the basic elements of collaboration, challenge, critical reflection and praxis" (Galbraith & Maslin-Ostrowski, 2000 : 137) and the legacy of passionate, articulate Athene and her alter ego, the wily, urbane Mentor should not be squandered.