Mentoring in black and white: the intricacies of cross‐cultural mentoring

Abstract

Cross-cultural mentoring relationships can be sites of struggle around the issues of race, class and gender. In addition, the mentor/protégé relationship offers micro-cosmic insight into power relations within western society. The authors of this paper, a black woman associate professor and a white male professor, use the example of their mentoring relationship to illustrate six common issues facing academicians involved in these relationships: (1) trust between mentor and protégé;(2) acknowledged and unacknowledged racism; (3) visibility and risks pertinent to minority faculty; (4) power and paternalism; (5) benefits to mentor and protégé; and (6) the double-edged sword of 'otherness' in the academy. Literature is used for review and critique of mentoring in the academy while offering personal examples to illustrate the complexity and success of a 13-year mentoring relationship between a duo who began their association as teacher/student.

A taxonomy of the characteristics of student peer mentors in higher education: findings from a literature review

“…A considerable body of research exists on the issue of gender and race matching in mentoring relationships, with 18.5% of the articles reviewed referring to this issue. Some studies have found that matching increases mentee and mentor satisfaction levels (Bowman & Bowman, 1995;Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004;Sands et al, 1991). These findings also show that the career-related and psychosocial needs of under-represented or marginalized groups can be best responded to through race and gender matching.…”

“…Interestingly, this review of articles points to the importance of shared values as an aspect of personality (Bouquillon et al, 2005;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004), a shared world view (Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004;Rose, 2005), or congruent beliefs (Bouquillon et al, 2005) as enabling the mentee to identify with their mentor. McDougall and Beattie (1997) describe the concept of complementarity as a shared or common value base between mentor and mentee.…”

“…However, as with some of the other characteristics in this section, the attribute was often referred to in different terms, including endorsing (Johnson, 2002), accepting (Johnson, 2002;Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004), encouraging (Mee- Lee & Bush, 2003;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004;Schmidt et al, 2004;Wallace et al, 2000), caring (Ferrari, 2004;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004;Schmidt et al, 2004;Wallace et al, 2000), and nurturing (Pitney & Ehlers, 2004). Without always using the term supportive, many articles describe actions of support by the mentor, such as providing words of encouragement (Awayaa et al, 2003) and demonstrating an eagerness to help (Noe, 1988;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004).…”

“…Sipe (1996) points to trustworthiness as one of the foundational elements in establishing trust between mentor and mentee. Some articles do not specify the attribute of mentor trustworthiness but do identify trust between mentor and mentee as being of primary importance in the mentoring relationship (Garvey & Alfred, 2000;Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004;McDougall & Beattie, 1997;McLean, 2004;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004). Other concepts closely related to trustworthiness identified in some of the articles are integrity (Bouquillon et al, 2005;Rose, 2005), principled action (Rose, 2003), and professional dignity (Awayaa et al, 2003).…”

“…Supportiveness was identified in a number of the articles reviewed (Awayaa et al, 2003;Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004;McDougall & Beattie, 1997;McLean, 2004;Mee-Lee & Bush, 2003;Sands et al, 1991). However, as with some of the other characteristics in this section, the attribute was often referred to in different terms, including endorsing (Johnson, 2002), accepting (Johnson, 2002;Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004), encouraging (Mee- Lee & Bush, 2003;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004;Schmidt et al, 2004;Wallace et al, 2000), caring (Ferrari, 2004;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004;Schmidt et al, 2004;Wallace et al, 2000), and nurturing (Pitney & Ehlers, 2004).…”