Culture and Quality Matter in Building Effective Mentorship Relationships with Native STEM Scholars

Abstract

Native peoples (Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian) are underrepresented in academia; they represent 2% of the US population but 0.01% of enrolled undergraduate students. Native peoples share the experiences of colonization and forced assimilation, resulting in the loss of ancestral knowledge, language, and cultural identity. Recognizing history and the literature on social integration and mentorship, we followed 100 Native science and engineering scholars across a year of participation in the hybrid American Indian Science and Engineering Society mentorship program. The results showed that high-quality faculty mentorship predicted persistence a year later. Furthermore, mentors who shared knowledge of Native culture—through experience or shared heritage—uniquely contributed to the Native scholars’ social integration and persistence through scientific community values in particular. Therefore, Native scholars may benefit from mentorship supporting the integration of their Native culture and discipline rather than assimilation into the dominant disciplinary culture.

Amplifying similarity to promote college STEM instructor–student mentoring relationship quality: a cluster randomized trial

“…Meta-analytic findings indicate that mentoring support and relationship quality were exhibited small positive correlations with outcomes such as sense of belonging, learning, and persistence intentions (ρ range: |0.01| -|0.41|, median ρ = |0.22|; Eby et al, 2013). Consistent with the meta-analytic findings, recent research on mentoring in college STEM contexts found that high-quality mentoring support promoted small-to-moderate gains in STEM belonging, identity, interest, self-efficacy, persistence intentions, values, and well-being (Estrada et al, 2022;Saw et al, 2022;Du et al, 2023;Kuchynka et al, 2023). Furthermore, STEM undergraduates' psychological similarity with their faculty mentor has a moderate-to-strong positive association with relationship quality and mentor-mentee relationship satisfaction (Hernandez et al, 2017(Hernandez et al, , 2023Pedersen et al, 2022).…”

Postgraduate perspectives on mentoring undergraduate researchers for talent development

“…This finding indicates that the TAD framework might benefit from explicit attention to interpersonal match between mentors and mentees because mentors who perceive their mentees as similar to them may provide more guidance and resources that support their mentees’ competence development. Indeed, prior research has shown the importance of deep‐level similarity, meaning shared values and culture, for promoting high‐quality STEM mentoring relationships 17–19 …”

“…Indeed, prior research has shown the importance of deep-level similarity, meaning shared values and culture, for promoting high-quality STEM mentoring relationships. [17][18][19]…”

Culturally Safe Mentoring for American Indian Nursing Students

“…Additionally, these cultural teachings strengthen faith and hope, and help students remain persistent no matter the challenge, just as ancestors would expect. In fact, the ability to enhance their own cultural identity and self-awareness becomes both a source and an indicator of their strength and success (Estrada et al, 2022; Wilkie, 2020). Historical attempts at erasure, invalidation, and extinction of American Indian culture necessitate faculty awareness of both the impact of historical events and the importance of recognizing and highlighting culturally derived student strengths, protective factors, and indicators of student success.…”