ABSTRACT
The case stories in this chapter focus primarily (although not exclusively) on the young people being mentored at New Beginnings. I do not wish to suggest by this that the young people exerted sole or primary control in the cases discussed here. There is ample evidence that they were also subject to the power of others: mentors, New Beginnings staff, other professionals working with them and policy-makers. However, evidence of their agency challenges some of the key assumptions about the power dynamics of mentoring discussed in Chapter 2. To recap, two general assumptions tend to be made: first, power is usually considered only in relation to individual interactions between mentor and mentee, rather than analysis of wider power relations that impact upon the dyad. Second, the power dynamics of mentoring are seen as one-directional. Mentors are assumed to determine where the relationship is situated on the spectrum of direction-guidance, and therefore to control the degree of empowerment for the mentee. The independent exercise of power by the mentee is not generally considered at all.
