Student presents, "Contextual Mentoring of Student Veterans" at Fielding's Winter Session 2013

Barton Buechner, Fielding's School of Human & Organizational Development

This presentation will be a summary of the findings of a dissertation pilot study to address the question of how mentoring relationships may contribute to the development and personal growth of a military combat veteran as part of their transition process in continuing education, and where those mentoring influences can best be found or positioned.

This pilot study report will be based upon three or four phenomenologically-based narrative interviews of student veterans, age 24-35, who are enrolled as students for at least one year. I will diagram emergent themes, archetypes, and “mental models” that may help to reveal (1) how these student veterans “make sense” of their lives and experiences; (2) how mentor figures may have influenced them in this process, and (3) what role context may play in this process.

These summaries will then be diagrammed using appropriate hermeneutic tools, including those of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory. Specifically, I will use the “LUUUUTT” method to identify stories Lived, Untold, Unheard, Untellable, Told, and Storytelling; and the “Daisy” model to illustrate relationships with potential influencers or Mentors identified in the narratives.

This research was supported by a research grant from Fielding Graduate University.