Nested mentoring relationships: reflections on a practice project for mentoring research capacity amongst social work practitioners

Abstract

This article provides a new perspective on mentoring relationships by reflecting on a practice project that involved what we identify as 'nested mentoring'. The insights emerged from a series of consultations during 2004, followed by developmental work during 2005, and then the project proper, which was funded during 2006-07.Findings: The authors reflect on the outcomes of unique mentoring relationships between tertiary providers and social service agencies in a project aimed at assisting the development of a culture of practitioner enquiry amongst social workers in social services agencies in New Zealand. This time-limited collaborative project involved bringing together 43 practitioners from eight social service agencies, a practitioner advisor, four academics from two universities, all logistically managed by a programme manager and supported by three funding bodies. Teams of practitioners were supported to conceptualize, design, implement and disseminate their own practice research projects located within their own agencies. The support included two strategies - workshops and mentoring; the latter being the focus of this article. Mentoring was provided by members of the academic and support team at the practitioners' place of work at regular intervals during the life of the project.Applications: Our reflections point to sets of emergent mentor relations in a development that goes beyond positing either vertical or horizontal relationships, to a more complicated nesting approach.