Mentoring Men Of Color And Women To Faculty Positions: Results From A Faculty Survey

Abstract

This paper reports on an engineering faculty survey designed to provide insights into why under represented (women, African American men, Latinos, and Native American men) enter academia. There continues to be a shortage of participation from these groups in the engineering field and even with all the efforts of people, foundations, and agencies, the numbers are not increasing. Determining what the factors are that motivate and encourage young people to pursue Ph.D.s and then select academic careers, is vital to the economic growth of America.

Framing Cultural Bridges for Relational Mentorship

“…Implicit bias about the quality of HBCU education and majority faculty's lack of appreciation for the social and academic adjustments that URMs are making when transitioning from HBCUs or non-research institutions to research intensive majority institution. A study by [21] involving 43 female and URM STEM faculty and 32 URM and female business faculty, examined how members of these group were encouraged through mentoring during their graduate studies to transition to academic positions, how they are mentoring their current students to academic positions, and some barriers in mentoring underrepresented students toward academic careers. The study found that 42% of engineering and 47% of business respondents reported a faculty member and/or academic advisor/mentor as a particularly influential person in their career path; faculty/advisor influence was true for both men/women and majority/minority faculty; specific factors that made a difference in the students' academic, social, and professional success were family support and financial assistance for engineering faculty, and mentoring and networking for business faculty; 59% of engineering and 47% of business respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that mentoring should be done differently based on gender; and 64% of engineering faculty agreed or somewhat agreed that mentoring should be done differently based on race/ethnicity, while 42% of the business faculty disagree or somewhat disagree that mentoring should be done differently based on race/ethnicity.…”

“…The study found that 42% of engineering and 47% of business respondents reported a faculty member and/or academic advisor/mentor as a particularly influential person in their career path; faculty/advisor influence was true for both men/women and majority/minority faculty; specific factors that made a difference in the students' academic, social, and professional success were family support and financial assistance for engineering faculty, and mentoring and networking for business faculty; 59% of engineering and 47% of business respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that mentoring should be done differently based on gender; and 64% of engineering faculty agreed or somewhat agreed that mentoring should be done differently based on race/ethnicity, while 42% of the business faculty disagree or somewhat disagree that mentoring should be done differently based on race/ethnicity. The minority faculty in the survey believed that major barriers exist to women and/or URM students pursuing academic careers including [21] a lack of role models and aspiration peers, climate issues of racism and/or sexism, and a current system that is inherently discriminatory and does not promote success among underrepresented groups.…”

“…Other mentorship models do exist, including: Business Model [40]- [42]; One-to-one learning relationship, which emphasized: emotional and psychological support [43], direct assistance with career professional development, and role modeling [21], [44]- [46]; Authentic Mentorship-"voluntary, personal relationship process between two individuals, in which one person in the relationship always is more experienced and senior in status to the second person" ]47]; and Collaborative mentorship, a mentoring relationship designed primarily for professional development [48]. Mentors in any of the mentorship models above can generally provide both instrumental functions, such as career related advocacy, assistance, feedback, and access to networks, and psychosocial functions, such as providing help and support to a mentee [49].…”

“…Faculty strategies for overcoming relational barriers: One of the roles of the faculty in mentorship is to help the mentee navigate the impact of systemic barriers summarized in Table 1 while also navigating the faculty barriers to relational engagement. In addition to those strategies suggested in [21] findings, faculty mentors can remove barriers to their ability and willingness to establish mentoring relationships with minority students by the following strategic actions mostly identified by 18]:…”