Fit before merit: exploring former McNair Scholars’ perceptions of faculty-student relationships

The Ronald E. McNair Scholars Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program is a federally funded program in the United States aimed at preparing underrepresented undergraduate students for graduate school. Within the program, which tends to have a meritocratic disposition, a mentorship component seeks to help students learn how to work with faculty members within the context of research. The central question of this exploratory study was how former McNair Scholars perceive the effectiveness of the mentorship component of the McNair program. This study is a student-centered and invites future studies about other perspectives within the McNair program, especially from faculty members and program staff. Based on eight interviews with former McNair Scholars in graduate school, in addition to complementary insights from my experience as a former McNair scholar and a previous participant observation study on current McNair Scholars’ work, a key finding is that the mentoring component struggled to address the tension between fit and merit within faculty-student relationships. This finding has implications for the future of the mentorship component of the McNair Program in addition to other the theorization of faculty-student relationships.

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

2017

Author dc:creator

• Vaughan, Terry

Contributors dc:contributor

• McCarthy, Cameron R.
• Dyson, Anne H.
• Zamani-Gallaher, Eboni
• Brown, Ruth N.

• McNair Scholars Program
• Higher education
• Formal mentoring
• Faculty-student relationships
• Underrepresented students

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Terry Vaughan

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98225

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98225