Abstract

This issue of Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning includes research from scholars representing Virginia, Montana, Ohio, New York, and Texas in the United States as well as Norway and the Netherlands. These international contributors explore mentoring relationships of various populations including high-risk adolescents, faculty, pre-service, and in-service teachers. Mentoring relationships are generally considered beneficial in that mentors can offer friendship, trust, counseling, and career developmental opportunities for proteges. Mentoring is associated with career progression, job satisfaction, low turnover intentions, and salary growth (Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004). However, unhealthy or even destructive aspects of mentoring relationships, such as physical or psychological abuse, have also been documented (Eby, Butts, Lockwood, & Simon, 2004). To maximize the benefits and prevent the dysfunctional effects, scholars have investigated how to establish effective, successful mentoring relationships. So far, no onesize-fits-all solution exists or is even recommended, because the dynamics of the mentor-mentee relationships may substantially differ according to their genders, races, or cognitive characteristics, to name a few. In this sense, the current issue contributes to the relevant literature and provides useful information as it explores different types of mentoring relationships and experiences involving various populations. Henderson, Williams, and Lawrence, in their article The Experiences of Behaviorally At-Risk Adolescent Girls in a Mentoring Program, evaluate the experience of middle school girls identified as behaviorally high-risk. Students who were identified as low-risk were more likely to report their mentors were meeting their expectations than were their high-risk counterparts. Both mentees and mentors found the group mentoring sessions to be beneficial. In the article, Developing an Indigenous Mentoring Program for Faculty Mentoring American Indian and Alaska Native Graduate Students in STEM: A Qualitative Study, Windchief, Arouca, and Brown developed a mentoring program for faculty who mentor, or who are interested in mentoring American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) graduate students in STEM. They explored lived experiences of AI/NA students, their mentors, and other people who play a supportive role in higher education and created MENTORING & TUTORING: PARTNERSHIP IN LEARNING 2018, VOL. 26, NO. 5, 477–481 https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2018.1561383