Race Reimaging Academic Mentoring for Womxn in Science and Engineering: An Exploratory Study

• In Event: Race-Reimaging Motivation in Education Research: Investigating Motivation Through Racialized and Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of this study was to examine the intersectional perspectives, interacting identities, and psychophysiological responses of academic mentoring in research for womxn faculty and graduate students in science and engineering, who are traditionally considered tokens in their fields.

Perspective or Theoretical Framework
The benefits of academic mentoring continue to be mixed (Armstrong & Jovanovic, 2015; Dubois, Holloway, Valentine, & Cooper, 2002; Johnson et al., 2007; Johnson, 2016). Prominent criticism posits that mentoring research tends not to operationally define mentoring (Raggins, 1999); carries biased assumptions on the role and traits of a mentor (Johnson, 2016); rarely included diverse methodological approaches such as qualitative research (e.g., Hill, Thomspon, & Williams, 1997); and does not account for confounding covariates appropriately (e.g., gender, age, race, rank).

Regarding confounding covariates, traditional mentoring studies exploring issues of diversity and inequity designate these variables in additive ways, limiting how mentoring dynamics are interpreted (e.g., Schunk & Mullen, 2013). Thus, there is a need to re-image how academic mentoring is studied and approached empirically. This exploratory study was informed by Johnson’s framework of ethical mentoring and the ethical principles that mentors should abide by (Johnson, 2016), Gee’s work on identity (Gee, 2000), DeCuir-Gunby & Schunk’s (2014) race re-imaging perspective of educational psychology constructs, and Rouhani (2014)’s and Del Toro & Yashikawa (2016)’ position on intersectionality-informed studies.

Methods, Techniques or Modes of Inquiry
Our research combined qualitative structured interviews with non-invasive electrodermal activity (EDA) wrist sensors to understand the conscious/unconscious responses and reactions 12 womxn graduate students and faculty in science and engineering. Participants were asked to read selected cases from Johnson’s book on ethical mentoring (Johnson, 2016) and answer some questions as the sensors collected their physiological reactions.

Data Sources, Evidence, Materials
Using a qualitative-dominant convergent mixed-method research approach (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2018), qualitative interviews were coded through a combination of holistic and values coding and quantitative data was tabulated and modeled using EDA. Findings were integrated as a cohesive whole for interpretation.

Results
Qualitative findings suggested that participants: (a) recognized the differences of power and privilege in research relationships based on their intersectional identities; (b) expressed common views of the need to communicate professional interests, even non-academic ones to graduate students; and (c) recognized the existence of discrimination in research admission processes. Quantitative findings suggested that compared to a participant-derived control case, an increase in EDA intensity was found for the gender-equity topics among multiracial graduate student participants while no changes or decreases were found for primarily White participants. Also, among White graduate students and faculty, decreases in EDA was found for the race-equity topics compared to the control. Cohesively, participants’ verbal and EDA responses suggested a disparate identification of intersectional identities (i.e., tokenism) among the participants.

Scholarly significance of work
This work is significant in that it helps scholars understand how to race re-imagine academic mentoring in ways that different contexts and intersectionality elements can be considered among participants.

Authors

• Idalis Villanueva, University of Florida

• Marialuisa Di Stefano, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Laura Gelles, University of San Diego

• Paul Vicioso