Transformative Complicity and Cultural Humility: De- and Re-Constructing Higher Education Mentorship for Under-represented Groups

Abstract

The American Sociological Association, academic administrators, and underrepresented faculty have voiced serious concerns about higher education exclusionary practices for more than a decade. A perspective called “home ethnography” is introduced as a methodological tool for understanding the situation of under-represented faculty. This home ethnographic study discusses doctoral trajectories in elite American university social science and social service programs. Varied mentorship sources and reactive/pro-active strategies of under-represented academics are analyzed through the lens of the social work codes of ethics and the alignment between the explicit and the implicit curriculum. The counterpoints and contradictions arising in mentor/mentee relationships, even within presumed similarities of ethnic identity, are addressed from critical feminist, race, and postcolonial theories. Emancipatory confluences that create potential advancement, despite almost insurmountable odds, are revealed through the paradigms of “transformative complicity,” “cultural humility,” and “empowerment.” In order to generate systemic change, managed risk-sharing and multi-sector inter-institutional mentorship are strongly recommended. These actions are more likely to trigger humanizing generative processes that lead to true inclusive diversity in higher education.