Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 5(2) 2017, v–vii  |  2307-6267  |  DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v5i2.2697   v

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Editorial

Tutoring and Mentoring for Student Development
Thierry M. Luescher,* Birgit Schreiber** & Teboho Moja***

*   Prof. Thierry Luescher is Research Director in the Education and Skills Development research programme 
of the Human Sciences Research Council, Cape Town, and affiliated Associate Professor in Higher 
Education Studies at the University of the Free State, Mangaung, South Africa. He is the JSAA journal 
manager. Email: jsaa_editor@outlook.com

**   Dr Birgit Schreiber is Senior Director of Student Affairs at Stellenbsoch University, South Africa. She is the 
Book Review editor and a member of the JSAA Editorial Executive. Email: birgitschreiber@sun.ac.za

***  Prof. Teboho Moja is Professor and Program Director, Higher Education Program, New York University, 
U.S.A., Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, 
and Extraordinary Professor in the Institute of Post-School Studies, University of the Western Cape, South 
Africa. She is JSAA’s Editor-in-Chief. 

This guest-edited issue of JSAA focuses on tutoring and mentoring and draws in parts on 
papers that were presented at the 2016 joint conference of the International Consortium 
for Educational Development (ICED) and the Higher Education Learning and Teaching 
Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA). Well-planned and implemented tutoring and 
mentoring programmes provide an effective means to support students to successfully 
navigate their academic, co- and extra-curricular lives. In the higher education context, 
tutoring can be defined as curricular and supplemental assistance provided to students by 
more senior students, academic development practitioners and other learning facilitators, 
to gain proficiency in basic and more advanced academic skills as well as learning support 
in relation to specific discipline-related learning materials and learning and assessment 
tasks. It typically involves breaking up large classes into smaller groups, which enhances 
the potential of effective participation of students, closer peer relations and staff-student 
relations, deep learning and student engagement. 

Mentoring, in turn, traditionally involves a one-to-one relationship, but it may also 
take place within a group context, or within cohort mentoring situations, between a 
more senior mentor and a younger student mentee, whereby the role of the mentor is to 
provide individualised guidance and support, even if this occurs within a group or cohort 
setting. Scholarly literature on tutoring and mentoring indicates the various cognitive 
and affective benefits that tutoring and mentoring have particularly for students from 
academically disadvantaged backgrounds (Powell, 1997). Thus, the methodologies of 
tutoring and mentoring are not only important programmatic interventions into students’ 
academic, personal and social development; they also provide successful models for student 
development even in the core functions of Student Affairs. 

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vi   Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 5(2) 2017, v–vii  |  2307-6267  |  DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v5i2.2697

Mentoring programmes are part of core functions of Student Affairs and the diversity of 
models and varity of programmes are linked to the kind of outcomes and goals set for the 
context.  Mentoring is a staple and core function of Student Affairs, and has recently been used 
in a more non-traditional way, for instance as a framework for cohort supervision, for student 
leadership support as well as for advancing excellence, thus expanding notions of mentoring. 

Tutoring and mentoring literature and research has not yet adequately explored 
some of the concerns around tutoring and mentoring approaches being premised on the 
maintenance and reproduction of culture and status quo. When seniors induct juniors into 
a context, explicitly or implicitly held assumptions, attitudes and practices are reproduced, 
often without critique or examination. These are some of the areas that require further 
exploration and deeper research and some of the articles in this guest-edited issue explore 
these critical issues – either by presenting original research into tutoring and mentoring, or 
by way of critically reflecting on their practice thereof.

In addition to the guest-edited articles on tutoring and mentoring, this issue of JSAA 
includes an article by Henry Mason that discusses results from a qualitative study on 
stress and coping. His study reveals surprising results on students’ understanding of stress 
and it shows that students consider stress as part of their “journey to and through higher 
education”. Furthermore, we publish Elisa Brewis’ review of the book Fairness in Access 
to Higher Education in a Global Perspective: Reconciling Excellence, Efficiency, and Justice (2013, 
edited by Meyer, St. John, Chankseliani and Uribe). The book presents a unique collection 
of chapters that discuss access to higher education in a range of contexts and higher 
education systems. Collectively, the chapters propose an alternative approach to higher 
education access;  an approach that offers sustainable and enabling pathways to HE.

For 2018, we are planning that volume 6 of the journal will focus on three main 
themes: student communities and residence life; the first-year student experience; and 
the politics of space, language and identity in African higher education. In addition, there 
is a proposal for a guest-edited issue on diversity and polarisation on campuses, which is 
highly topical in our context as well as globally. Notwithstanding this thematic orientation, 
open submissions on any topic are always well received, and will be vetted, reviewed and 
if possible accepted and published as soon as they are ready, even if they do not fall within 
the theme of a specific issue. In this respect, it is also important to note that in the course 
of 2016/17 we have received an increasing number of manuscripts, including manuscripts 
that do not strictly fall within the scope of the journal. We have therefore decided to focus 
more on ‘student affairs proper’. We also plead with authors to adhere to the basic author 
guidelines for manuscript submission, and understand that a journal that is only published 
twice a year will have a lead time from submission to publication of up to six months, of 
which at least three months are typically taken up by ‘quality control processes’ such as 
vetting, peer reviews, and resubmission, and another three to four months by the publishing 
process per se, involving professional proof-reading, layout and type-setting, and eventually 
uploading and indexing on our various e-platforms and printing.

Finally, we would like to thank an outstanding scholar and higher education leader, 
Prof. Akilagba Sawyerr, for his service to the journal. Prof. Sawyerr has served for almost 

http://dx.doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v5i2.2697


Thierry M. Luescher, Birgit Schreiber & Teboho Moja: Tutoring and Mentoring for Student Development   vii

two years on the JSAA Editorial Executive and has recently tendered his resignation from 
the Executive. His expertise is, however, not entirely lost to the journal. Prof. Sawyerr will 
continue on the JSAA International Advisory Board to provide advice on the general 
direction and development of the journal, and as peer reviewer for articles that fall within 
his area of expertise.

Reference
Powell, M.A. (1997). Academic Tutoring and Mentoring: A Literature Review. Sacramento, C.A.: California 

Research Bureau.

How to cite:
Luescher, T.M., Schreiber, B. & Moja, T. (2017). Tutoring and Mentoring for Student Development. 

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 5(2), v–vii. DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v5i2.2697

http://dx.doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v5i2.2697