ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the dynamics of lived mentoring relationships, the author want to spend a bit of time in this chapter unpacking the conceptual ambivalence in mentorship as a social relation. It starts with the fact that unlike almost any other social relation, there is actually very little agreement on what constitutes mentorship. And this confusion is not just about language. The contradictions can be thought of as sociological cross-signals. Set against a backdrop of competing contemporary and historical influences, semantic and normative ambiguities, cultural spin and contortions in academic conceptualization, one can appreciate that the social structure of mentorship is quite wobbly. It is no wonder people are anxious when using these terms. An inquiry into the emotional freight of mentorship—right down to the words the authors use to denote its two central roles—provides a compelling entry point to an exploration of this relationship.
