“We’re all for the same mission”: Faculty mentoring Native Hawaiian undergraduates in STEM research.

Abstract

Based on Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural Theory, this multicase study explored the ways in which engagement in mentored research activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) influenced the academic and professional aspirations of five Native Hawaiian undergraduate mentees and their persistence in higher education. The students’ faculty mentors were both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian. In-depth interviews with mentees and mentors, observations of mentoring interactions, and document analysis indicated that providing mentees with hands-on activities to work on individual research projects in collaborative settings fostered students’ research mastery and independent critical thinking. Many of the faculty mentors used their knowledge of Hawaiian culture and communities to inform their mentoring practices. Community-engaged research activities that focused on Hawai‘i and the needs of and collaboration with Hawaiian communities provided opportunities for students to give back to communities and fostered the mentees’ senses of purpose. Being able to serve and protect communities, while simultaneously bringing forth Hawaiian culture in higher education and society more broadly motivated students to pursue graduate education and scientific careers.

“These Different Ideas, Traditions, and Values Make My Thinking Unique and Creative”: Bringing Native Hawaiian Ways of Knowing to Engineering Education

“…Positive role models that support these three students help them to accept their differences and enable their authentic selves creating the space and safety for these students to bring in their ways of knowing [2], [19], despite their realities in education from occupation and settler colonialism [18]. Engineering educators should be more supportive role models and create more open learning environments to allow all students with marginalized identities to bring their full authentic selves into the classroom.…”

“…Some students are able to overcome these tensions of being between their cultural and academic communities and their outlook on place by remembering the motivation to restore the health and honor of their land and people. They see education as a privilege and some students want to use that privilege to help to empower their community and resist settler colonialism [10], [19]. Kerr and colleagues [12] describe how Native Hawaiian STEM students want to be the bridge between science and culture from a place of respect.…”

Indigenous Health Research Mentorship within Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand: A Scoping Review

“…Furthermore, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action #23 highlights the critical need for Indigenous representation in health professions, specifically in healthcare fields [9]. Currently, Indigenous students, Indigenous health researchers (IHRs), and faculty members across Canada, the United States (US), Australia, and New Zealand are underrepresented in Western-dominated academic institutions, as well as in health research [10,11]. In Canada, Indigenous students constitute 5% of all postsecondary students, and Indigenous faculty members represent only 1.4% of all faculty members [12].…”

“…In 2018, there were 18,062 Indigenous post-secondary students, making up 1.8% of the postsecondary student population in Australia [14]. There is a body of literature that articulates the underrepresentation, retention, and retainment of Indigenous students, early career researchers (ECRs), IHRs and faculty members in academia, due to structural racism, systematic challenges, and the intellectual constructs of colonial ways of teaching and curricula [7,10]. Overarchingly, there is a common thread which speaks to the dire need for Indigenous mentorship within academic settings [15].…”

“…Indigenous mentorship is a cultural custom that has existed for centuries and can be referred to as a non-hierarchical approach in which mentors and mentees honor each other's knowledges and gifts [7,16]. The principles of mutual recognition, respect, sharing, trust, and mutual responsibility facilitate a wholistic relationship of reciprocity between mentors and mentees [10,15]. Indigenous mentorship focuses on building relationships that are respectful and reciprocal, and that recognize each other's sociocultural contexts in ways that allow for vulnerability, trust, and confidence to emerge [17].…”