Mapping Juneberries: Imagining a Future for Mentoring Graduate and Undergraduate Students in STEM Disciplines

• In Event: Mapping the Long Haul: Cartographies of Mentoring Journeys

Abstract

Objective
The juneberry is native to North America and is often mistaken for blueberries given its dark blue, medium sized, circular shape. We use the juneberry shrub as a metaphor to illustrate the STEM mentoring approach we used with graduate and undergraduate students across four U.S. institutions. Like the juneberry fruit, the concept of mentoring is often misrepresented as an approach that can be easily replicated, but in fact, effective mentoring (like a healthy juneberry bush) requires critical mentors (i.e. sufficient water) and a supportive educational environment (i.e. soil conditions), to ensure students persist and thrive in their STEM programs. Here, we share how WiSEN, an implemented STEM mentoring network, produced needed support and other “fruits” for student participants.
Theoretical framework

The WiSEN program visualizes its process of change organically, defining goals and outcomes along nonlinear paths which is representative of the process of growth and learning in collaborative, co-mentoring relationships (Agosto et al., 2016). WiSEN leaders describe this process using the juneberry logic model (see Figure). Program goals are realized through environmental inputs, metaphorically represented by soil, water, and light, and the process of growth, or outputs, is represented through stems, roots, leaves and berries within an expanding ecosystem of change. Like the juneberry, individuals and institutions share in collective wellbeing and can be impacted by the environment and other contributing factors, both internal and external, professional and personal. As such, WiSEN supports student fellows as they navigate the contributing factors that affect their participation and persistence in STEM and the institutions which serve them.


Figure 1 of Juneberry Map

Modes of inquiry
The juneberry metaphor represents a new vision for STEM mentorship and elucidates WiSEN’s central research question: What contributes to creating a co-mentoring environment that supports students in STEM? The researchers use the juneberry logic model to illustrate our Design Based Implementation Research Method (DBIR). DBIR is an iterative, collaborative, and practice-focused method where researchers collaborate to identify challenges and opportunities while creating something new and learning from implementation in context (Fishman et al., 2013; McKay, 2017). WiSEN leaders adapt and refine the co-mentoring model based on qualitative and quantitative data collected during WiSEN implementation and external evaluation.

Data sources
WiSEN brings together four institutions of higher education: Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Montana, Washington State University, and Gonzaga University. This collaborative network structure is represented as the juneberry’s soil, water, and light inputs. Data for the project consists of two interviews for each of the five researchers, one focus group interview, and post-surveys from 32 graduate and undergraduate student fellows. The central research question was mapped as juneberry outcomes and outputs.

Results and conclusions
The mapping of the WiSEN mentoring model fills important gaps in knowledge regarding best practices for supporting students in STEM. The metaphorical map of juneberry outputs/fruits included students’ increased sense of belonging, their desire to persist in STEM, an increase in the strength of WiSEN Scholars' STEM student identity, and a significant increase in students involved in STEM professional/career development.

Authors

• Jillian Cadwell, Washington State University - Tri-Cities

• Ke Wu, Montana State University

• Makini Beck, Rochester Institute of Technology

• Melinda Howard, Gonzaga University

• Elizabeth Wargo, University of Idaho

• Veronica S. Smith, data2insight LLC