Critical Perspectives on Mentoring: Trends and Issues, by Catherine Hansman,

The term mentoring has become as ubiquitous as the term transformative learning in the adult education, higher education, and human resource development literature. The plethora of articles and books on the topic invites the question, What exactly is mentoring? This monograph answers that question and provides the reader with a sound, critical examination of mentoring in a variety of contexts. Readers will be impressed with the breadth of topics and the ample reference list. In the introductory chapter, Hansman provides readers a map of the monograph. She introduces the monograph’s chapters, which include mentoring as it relates to adult learning and development, education and workplaces, telementoring, and issues of power and diver-sity. She recalls the Greek origins of the word mentor, delineates various definitions of the term, distinguishes between formal and informal mentoring, and notes that most of the mentoring literature fails to take a critical approach. Mott’s chapter 2 examines mentoring’s place in adult learning and development, citing its psychosocial benefits, its importance through the life course, the “transformative nature of mentoring ” (p. 9), and gender-related barriers. Last, Mott offers three mentored individuals ’ narratives. Next, Ellinger describe