A pilot study of email in an e-mentoring relationship

E-mentoring is an alternative to conventional face-to-face mentoring, incorporating the use of email, bulletin boards, discussion groups, instant messaging and videoconferencing. In a pilot trial, a New Zealand midwife mentored two new graduate midwives using a secure email system. The main themes of the email messages exchanged were debriefing and reflection, clinical queries, provision of information and discussion of professional issues. The pilot study showed that e-mentoring is a feasible option for midwives and warrants further investigation. Both mentor and mentees found the experience to be a helpful one. One of the advantages for both mentor and mentees was the flexibility of communication, since responses to email messages could be made at times that suited the authors. Nevertheless, issues of Internet access and the technical expertise of midwives will need to be considered in order for large scale e-mentoring to be implemented.

The Seduction of Sarah: travel memoirs and intercultural learning

The paper explores the nexus between intercultural storytelling and intercultural learning. Noting the wide appeal of the travel memoir set in France, it takes as a case study a book that, while positioned within that genre, attempts to shift some predictable patterns: Sarah Turnbull’s best-selling Almost French. Analysis shows that the book in fact participates in a subtle play of genres, whereby the lure of the travel memoir is used to entice readers towards a position where they read the book as a guide to French culture. The particular form of hybridity attempted is, however, a delicate enterprise, as the reception of the book demonstrates, in that the intercultural lessons on offer risk being overshadowed by the expectations readers bring to the genre of the travel memoir. The paper examines the competing seductions operating throughout the text and relates the conditions for taking up the opportunity for intercultural learning to questions of genre. It offers a pedagogical uptake of the textual analysis, thus bridging disciplines in a way that mirrors Turnbull’s bridging of genres