The revolution of online mentoring. The online and offline qualities of mentoring in the Let’s Teach For Hungary Mentoring Program

Abstract

The importance of mentoring has already been recognized internationally in a large number of social contexts (Wingerter, 2010). The number of mentoring programs within the framework for schools is increasing both internationally and nationally (Raufelder és Ittel, 2012; Fejes és mtsi., 2009). Besides traditional mentoring, the role of peer mentoring (Sipe, 2005) has also come to the fore in recent years. In this study the focus is on cross-age peer mentoring (Miller, 2002; Karcher, 2005). The Let’s Teach for Hungary Mentoring Program (LTHMP) is a good example for introducing such a mentoring program, where undergraduate students mentor elementary school students. In our research, mentors who participated in this program were examined. Our focus was on those students from Debrecen, who completed at least two semesters in the program. We were curious about how the COVID-19 pandemic period affected mentoring, so we investigated the transition of a mentoring program based on a personal meeting to online mentoring, also its pivotal points, advantages and disadvantages. Semi-structured interviews were recorded in the spring of 2020 and 2021, which was during the global pandemic situation, with a total of 50 mentors. These interviews were examined by qualitative interview analysis. The content analysis of the interview texts was performed based on codes formulated by theory and the emic codes appearing in the interviews (Creswell, 2012). Based on results, it appears that mentors differ in their attitudes toward online mentoring and can be organized into different types. All in all, transition to online mentoring was a challenge. Age was an important factor in terms of digital comfort. We noticed the phenomenon of Big Brother Mentoring. Our research might fill an importan research gap by highlighting both the challenges and benefits of online mentoring. In addition, it can facilitate the efficient and successful operation of the Let’s Teach for Hungary Mentoring Program.