Success breeds success. Moroccan and Turkish student mentors in the Netherlands

Of all the major migrant groups in the Netherlands, Turkish and Moroccan pupils perform the least well in school. Although smaller in number there is also a Turkish and Moroccan group that is successful in school. In several projects these successful Turkish and Moroccan higher education students give, as a student mentor, guidance and counselling to Turkish and Moroccan pupils in secondary education. International literature has extensively reviewed the effects of mentoring. The content of mentoring as such, however, has not been studied so much. In the article I will focus on this somehow neglected aspect in the research. I will, based on my own qualitative research, go into depth on how mentoring is practiced on a daily basis. With the aim to develop (the beginning of) a methodology I will look how a mentor relationship develops over time and describe the variety of themes a mentor relationships deals with.