Making sense of mentoring or mentoring making sense? Reflections on the mentoring process by adult mentors with young people

This paper sets out to look at the processes of mentoring from the perspect ives of adult mentors who were interviewed as part of a wider study of youn g people's perceptions and understandings of informal mentoring processes. It seeks to clarify the processes of mentoring within the context of the 'r isk society' by posing the question, how do young people and mentors percei ve these processes? What do mentors get out of the mentoring relationship? Findings from a qualitative study of informal mentoring relationships are d rawn on to suggest that the mentors perceive the experience of being identi fied as a mentor and the processes of mentoring in highly positive terms. I t is argued that this provides a form of 'cultural capital for mentors' in helping them to make sense of the challenges and dilemmas they face as adul ts. It is concluded that this finding has important implications for the de sign of mentoring interventions with young people. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.