The R Factor: Centering Race in the Mentoring of African American College Students

<p>Mentoring provides personal support, academic assistance and career guidance to college students of color whose experiences have been documented to be very different from those of their White counterparts. Achievement inequity, problems of persistence, experiences of racism and student reports of feeling marginalized and misunderstood threaten the ability of students of color to succeed in college. While it may be assumed that race plays a central role in the mentoring relationships of students of color, this assumption may be misguided. The existence of formal mentoring programs and informal mentoring relationships that support students of color does not necessarily ensure that the confounded issue of race is appropriately embedded as a shaping force in the mentor/mentee association. This paper will deconstruct the assumption that approaches to the mentoring of students of color automatically consider race by applying Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework to examine if and how race is present in the relationship between mentors and their African American student mentees at predominantly White institutions of higher education. Using phenomenological research design, this study brings race out of the rhetoric of higher education and places it in the center of examination to uncover student perceptions of race and how it operates within the mentoring relationship to help us better understand how we ensure high quality mentoring can be actively applied in our efforts to support the success of college students of color.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Coble, Bridgette

Contributors dc:contributor

• Frank Tuitt, Ph.D.
• Jesse Valdez
• Lori Patton
• Arthur Jones

• African American
• Mentoring
• Race
• Education
• Higher Education

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/130

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1129