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In the vignette of mentoring practice provided in this chapter, the ‘mentoring conver-
sation’ is replaced by a dialogic approach to mentoring that considers meaning mak-
ing in interindividual territory (Voloshinov, 1973 ).
Making Meaning in Inter-individual Territory
I turn now to a description of the theoretical frame that will be useful in understand-
ing how the vignette presented in this chapter contributes to a more democratic
enactment of mentoring, of mentoring as ‘praxis’ rather than ‘practice’. It is an
account of a communicative space for mentoring involving more than just robust
conversations that draw on evidence and do not avoid the difficult issues. Indeed, I
argue that transforming practice requires more than good-quality conversation and
other pedagogical skills for mentoring. It requires a form of sharing that results in
new meaning being made between those engaged in the dialogue and activities of
mentoring and is thus dialogic.
The writings of Mikhail Bakhtin and Valentin Voloshinov provide insight into
what it means to interact dialogically. The essential difference between engaging in
a dialogue and working dialogically occurs when:
The speaker strives to get a reading on his own word, and on his own conceptual system that
determines this word, within the alien conceptual system of the understanding receiver; he
enters into dialogical relationships with certain aspects of this system. (Bakhtin, 1981 ,
p. 282)
In order for the mentor and mentee to engage in a shared experience of meaning
making, as described by Bakhtin, each must be prepared to ‘struggle’ over the word
and change the direction of their talk to accommodate changes to their ‘inner world’
through a shared, ‘structured and stabilized expression on experience’ (Voloshinov,
1973 , p. 91). Working dialogically is not akin to ‘telling’ or ‘instructing’, as may be
the case in learning through coaching, but rather the existence of ‘(a)ctive agree-
ment/disagreement stimulates and deepens understanding, makes the other’s word
more resilient and true to itself, and produces mutual dissolution and confusion’
(Bakhtin, 1986 , p. 142). When mentors and mentees interact in ways that are dia-
logic, the roles of each are not fixed across time, be it instantaneous or extended.
Dialogic mentoring gives rise to relationships between mentor and mentee that are
fluid and flexible. Dialogic mentoring provides an opportunity to construct a ‘space’
for mentoring in which the word or action of the ‘other’, be it mentor or mentee, is
engaged with, through disagreement as well as agreement, defended and changed.
Learning happens as a result of genuine engagement with the word and actions of
the ‘other’. Such fluid and flexible relationships, based on an understanding that
agreement and difference in each other’s perspective provides the concrete sub-
stance of the learning, also make traditional power relationships associated with
notions of ‘expert’ and ‘novice’ more difficult to maintain. This concept of dialogic
D. Ta lbot