How Co-Learning Facilitates Effective Mentorship for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Undergraduates

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Mentorship, Allyship, and Decolonial Approaches to Educational Research (Table 1)

Abstract

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students continue to increasingly enroll in universities and participate in service-learning programs related to their fields of study (NSSE, 2020). Understanding service-learning opportunities as sites for mentorship, we explore one service-learning program to understand: What factors do graduate and undergraduate participants identify as contributing to effective mentoring in a service-learning program? What factors do participants identify as constraining effective mentorship? Based on 42 semi-structured interviews with former undergraduate and graduate participants, we found effective mentorship involves co-learning: a disposition for, framing of spaces to, and presentation of opportunities for co-learning. Constraints included mismatches in mentor-mentee interests/identities, and shortcomings in programmatic structures. Implications for improved program structures and frameworks for mentorship at universities are discussed.

Authors

• Mary Franitza, University of California - Santa Barbara
  Presenting Author

• Valerie Meier, University of California - Santa Barbara
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda Andersen, University of California - Santa Barbara
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jin-Sook Lee, University of California - Santa Barbara
  Non-Presenting Author