The role and prevalence of faculty mentoring among African American and Latino undergraduates in different institutional contexts: a mixed methods study

While the higher education mentoring literature is quite extensive, it largely discusses faculty mentoring in respect to graduate students. Knowledge about faculty mentoring among undergraduate students in general, and underrepresented undergraduate students in particular, in the extant literature is largely the result of the (mis)appropriation of what researchers know about faculty mentoring among graduate students to undergraduate students; very little research has actually been conducted that investigates faculty mentoring among undergraduates. This study explores the role and prevalence of faculty mentoring among underrepresented undergraduate students. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, a secondary analysis of data collected from participants in the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) was conducted to determine the role, importance, and benefits of faculty mentoring among underrepresented students, from their perspective. It also probes the prevalence of faculty mentoring among African American and Latino undergraduates particularly and whether it differs for these students based on the institutional context of the colleges and universities they attend. Additionally, this research explored the relationship between faculty mentoring and these students’ collegiate satisfaction. The findings suggest that underrepresented undergraduates generally find faculty mentoring relationships to be an important, beneficial, and valuable asset to their collegiate experiences and outcomes, especially their educational goals and aspirations. The findings also indicate that differences exist in the prevalence of faculty mentoring for these students based on the research emphasis and selectivity of their institutions; these findings have important implications for researchers, students, institutions, and practitioners. Ultimately, this work highlights the role of faculty mentoring among underrepresented undergraduate students and recommends that institutions and practitioners seriously commit to devising, developing, and evaluating strategies to foster these relationships and increase their occurrence among underrepresented undergraduate students.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Dyer-Barr, Raina M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Baber, Lorenzo D.
• Trent, William T.
• Anderson, James D.
• Parker, Laurence J.

• collegiate satisfaction
• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Faculty mentoring
• mentoring
• undergraduates
• underrepresented students
• institutional context
• Minority-serving institutions
• Predominantly white institutions
• Hispanic-serving institutions

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Raina Marshel Dyer-Barr

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15557

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/15557