Strengths and Challenges of Communications in a Global, Informal Women Researchers' Peer Mentoring Community

• In Event: Mentoring as a Touchstone for Reinvention, Transforming, and Transitioning

Abstract

Introduction and Purpose

Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) strive to build a culture that is equitable and nurturing for all faculty. Unfortunately, numerous reports suggest the professional environment of IHE’s privileges white male faculty and continues to exclude women and faculty of color (Jayakumar, Howard, Allen, & Han, 2009). IHE settings and practices have shown to have a negative impact on faculty of color in terms of attrition, especially lacking support for women faculty who are impacted by the double quandary of race and gender. While women faculty face multiple barriers in their academic journey, many chose to develop and participate in an independent network of support (Esnard, Roberts, Agosto, Karanxha, Beck, Wu, & Unterreiner, 2015). We, the researchers of this paper, are members of the Curve-Y-FRiENDS (C-Y-F) community, whose sole mission is to create a safe place for women academics to thrive and grow. As a global group of women engaged in informal mentoring, we had developed a series of effective practices which align with women’s way of communicating via email, Google+ Hangout, text, and lastly telephone conferences. While we have reported many strengths of this informal network, it is the challenges within the community that caused tensions (Authors, 2015). In this study we discuss how the lack of space and action can be resolved and provide guidance for ways to address tensions and to use their voice to attend to these conflicts.

Theoretical Perspective

Typically, IHE support white male faculty traditions, which places priority on an individualistic, value orientation, perpetuating white cultural values (Chesler & Young, 2013). There is need for a paradigm shift to include the diverse perspectives of women and faculty of color, thus affording them the same criteria for excellence in the production of research. This study draws from Benishek, Bieschke, Park, and Slattery’s (2004) multicultural feminist model of mentoring which aligns the current research on mentoring to the needs of women and/or faculty of color.

Methods and Data Source

This feminist ethnography design (Glesne, 1999, Creswell, 1998), further delves into the data from a previously reported study (Authors, 2015). Artifacts such as email communications within the C-Y-F community were collected. Three existing email threads of communication from C-Y-F are examined: (1) Book chapter leading/corresponding authors; (2) AERA-2016 Symposium themes; and (3) Email listserv for “membership” of C-Y-F. The research question framing this study is:
How can the communication practices in the C-Y-F informal mentoring group be improved?

Results and Significance of Study

Based on preliminary examination of the extended “tensions” study, we have developed templates and tools to facilitate and guide the group’s communications. By examining effective ways of communicating from a feminist perspective the alternative ways of constructing knowledge rather than the dominant White male culture can be expressed. As we continue to embrace the social capital of women educators we aim enlightened field in ways to consider mentoring women in diverse contexts such as IHEs.

Authors

• Nilsa J. Thorsos, National University

• Ke Wu, University of Montana

• Anne L. Kern, University of Idaho