Foreword
With the approval of NHL University and the examination board of the Social Work
department, this research was carried out at the UMB Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring
in Boston, Massachusetts, led by Professor Jean E. Rhodes. This internship placement was
established in collaboration with (1) the UMB Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring, (2)
NHL University and, (3) Stenden University during the European Mentoring Summit in
March 2016. Moreover, a scholarship of “FB Oranjewoud Fonds” was granted towards living
and studying in the Boston, USA.
Due to VISA-restrictions, collaboration with social work or mentoring organizations
was not possible, particularly as it involved contact with vulnerable populations. Moreover, as
an undergraduate student collecting own research data was not approved by the US
government. Therefore, this research was carried out using secondary data collection which
will be further explained in this paper. Lastly, this research takes a broader social sciencebased perspective, rather than the typical, organizational and practice-based approach
generally utilized in my degree program. As collaboration with social workers or social work
organizations was not possible, no practical recommendations, grounded in the evidence,
could be drawn from my research and applied to the role of the pedagogic worker. However,
the best was tried to make research suggestions regarding this aspect by addressing the
implications of the findings in the context of social work. Suggestions about the role of the
pedagogic worker in the context of mentoring are made in my policy paper.
Lastly, as this research was carried out in the US, only American research data was
granted to use. Therefore, no direct conclusion could be made about this research subject
regarding the Dutch context. Nonetheless, attempts are made to include the Dutch context
where appropriate.