Your mentoring story. My mentoring story. Constructing mentoring guidelines for mentors working with learner-athletes in a South African sport school

Abstract

This study explored how mentors working in a South African sport school were able to use their individual and shared mentoring experiences to draw up mentoring guidelines that would assist them in their roles as mentors within the school’s boarding establishment. This was achieved by: firstly, exposing them to an experiential learning model; secondly, using the model as a tool for reflection on their personal mentoring experiences; thirdly, facilitating a mentoring focus group; fourthly, transcribing and analysing their experiences, discussions, and reflections through a narrative thematic analysis; and lastly, by collaborating with the participants to formulate mentoring guidelines. The findings were largely consistent with the literature reviewed; however, there were a few instances that they differed or were unique to the literature reviewed.