Educational Mentoring: Is it Worth the Effort?

Abstract

In this review of 159 articles relating to educational mentoring, an endeavour has been made to clarify the benefits and negative outcomes of mentoring programs for mentors, mentees and the educational organization. Although there was found to be a higher incidence of positive outcomes associated with mentoring programs, sufficient evidence suggested that the "dark side" of mentoring does exist. While numerous positive and negative impacts of mentoring on mentors and mentees were noted, impacts on the organisation (frequently schools) were rarely addressed It should be noted that the reported outcomes are based on studies as the unit of analysis rather than the number of subjects in a study. In many cases where mentoring programs were reported to have negative outcomes, program success appeared to have been jeopardised by lack of funding, lack of time, or poor matching of mentors and mentees.