Decoding the mentoring experience : a conversation with Parker Palmer

"I think it would be awesome for everyone to be involved in a mentoring group. A lot of the time I don't think we needed 'guidance' but it was just great social interaction with people you would otherwise not have met" says one student in a University-wide First Year Initiative designed to assist students with the transition to University studies. Parker Palmer (1998, p. 21) describes mentoring as "a mutuality that requires more than meeting the right teacher; the teacher must meet the right student. In this encounter, not only are the qualities of the mentor revealed, but the qualities of the student are drawn out in a way that is equally revealing". In the Faculty of Education's 'pilot program' 54 students (25% of those enrolled in the Bachelor of Education, Primary) were randomly selected to participate. Mentoring groups consisted of six students who chose to meet volunteer staff mentors for six weeks. This paper is a reflection on the mentoring experience of one group that continues to meet regularly. The research question: What was it about the group members that allowed successful mentoring to happen? is addressed through a conversation with Parker's ideas, thereby decoding this rich mentoring experience.

Spirituality in the work of Theodore Roszak : implications for contemporary ecopsychology

Despite the recent flourishing of ecopsychology research, risks may be involved if ecopsychology remains a loosely defined paradigm. We suggest that drawing from some of the central themes of Theodore Roszak’s The Voice of the Earth (1992), a seminal text of ecopsychology, may help to elucidate the unique contribution of ecopsychology and its sustained relevance for environmentally focused psychologies. To provide a comprehensive review, we consider The Voice of the Earth by placing this text in the context of Roszak’s broader body of literature, discussing his earlier and more recent works. We particularly focus on the theme of spiritual experience throughout Roszak’s literature, as we believe that this is one of the more unique and important aspects of his work that has implications for the future development of ecopsychology as a paradigm and social movement. In conclusion, we suggest that Roszak’s emphasis on the value of a spiritual or animistic experience of nature, as a means of fostering empathy toward the natural world, may assist in providing meaningful focus to contemporary ecopsychology.