Mayes' work, situated in the humanities and depth psychology, is thought to offer an alternative to the social sciences model.
Recently, his work has turned to what he calls "educative processes," which sees teaching and learning as inherent in all human relationships of any emotional, cognitive, or ethical moment (2020, 2019, 2017).
Two of Mayes' books, Inside Education: Depth Psychology in Teaching and Learning (2007) and The Archetypal Hero's Journey in Teaching and Learning: A Study in Jungian Pedagogy (2010), incorporate the psychoanalytic theories of Heinz Kohut (particularly Kohut's notion of the "selfobject") and the object relations theory of Ronald Fairbairn and D.W. Winnicott.
His latest study, Archetype, Culture, and the Individual in Education: The Three Pedagogical Narratives, appeared in May, 2020 through Routledge Press.
Intercultural Competence: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of Exchange Programs with Dinah D'Antoni and Compassion and Conflict Resolution: An Archetypal Approach with Jacquelyn Rinaldi are slated to appear late in Winter 2022.