Cross-cultural Mentoring Research Articles

A Critical Co-Constructed Autoethnography of a Gendered Cross-Cultural Mentoring Between Two Early Career Latin@ Scholars Working in the Deep South

Multicultural mentoring has been suggested to support Latin@ faculty success in their careers, yet current literature on effective mentorships of Latin@ faculty is limited. This critical co-constructed autoethnography draws on critical race theory (CRT) and latin@ critical race theory (LatCrit) frameworks to highlight the lived experiences and key elements of an effective gendered cross-cultural mentoring relationship in a Latin@ pretenure faculty dyad working in a predominantly White institution of higher education located in the Deep South of the United States. Drawing upon a methodological rhythm of sorts, a Black scholar acts as a muse providing testimonios and interpretations of a relationship existing among Latin@ scholars in predominantly White intellectual spaces. Findings from this critical co-constructed autoethnography note that a safe colored space supports effective mentoring, familismo, personalismo, enabling effective cross-cultural mentorship.

Building Rapport Between International Graduate Students and Their Faculty Advisors: Cross-Cultural Mentoring Relationships at the University of Guelph

Mentoring graduate students is very challenging, even when both the student and faculty have similar cultural values. Many international students have a different culture from that of Canadian. Their challenge is adapting to their new environment, and for their faculty advisors to understand and work well with them. This research explored the relationships, experience, and challenges of international graduate students and their faculty advisors at the University of Guelph, through focus group discussions, semi-structured face-to-face interviews and online surveys. Language barriers and financial difficulties were among the major challenges international students face adapting to their academic and social environment and working with their faculty advisors. We found that building good student-advisor relationship requires understanding graduate student and advisor formal responsibilities and expectations. Le mentorat des étudiants de cycles supérieurs pose tout un défi, même dans les cas où l’étudiant et le professeur ont tous deux des valeurs culturelles semblables. De nombreux étudiants internationaux viennent d’une culture différente de ce que nous connaissons au Canada. Leur défi est de s’adapter à leur nouvel environnement et pour leurs conseillers pédagogiques, de les comprendre et de collaborer avec eux. Cette recherche explore les relations de travail, l’expérience et les défis auxquels sont confrontés les étudiants internationaux de cycles supérieurs et leurs conseillers pédagogiques à l’Université de Guelph par le biais de discussions de groupes de consultation, d’entrevues face à face semi-structurées et d’un sondage en ligne. Les barrières linguistiques et les difficultés financières s’avèrent comme étant les défis principaux auxquels font face les étudiants internationaux lors de leur adaptation à leur environnement académique et social et dans leurs interactions avec leurs conseillers pédagogiques. Nous avons constaté que pour établir de bonnes relations étudiant-conseiller pédagogique, il est essentiel de comprendre les responsabilités et les attentes formelles des étudiants et des conseillers pédagogiques.

Relational-cultural Theory as a Framework for Mentoring in Academia: Toward Diversity and Growth-fostering Collaborative Scholarly Relationships

Mentoring in academia that encourages collaboration and interpersonal relationships is important in helping newer faculty members attain success. Developing such programs is challenging within our prevailing academic context that rewards competition and individually delineated success. We propose that Relational Cultural Theory, a feminist approach to healthy psychological growth, developed by Jean Baker Miller and colleagues at the Stone Center at Wellesley College, is an appropriate framework to guide effective mentoring programs, with a particular focus on cross-cultural mentoring of protégés in academia who are women and/or of color. We suggest the traditionally individual-oriented definition of success in academia could be modified toward more emphasis on collaboration, recognizing, and celebrating the rich diversity within academia. This emphasis can strengthen organizations by increasing and embracing diversity, adding to the richness of ideas and approaches to societal problems. Mentoring is defined through an expanded view that recognizes healthy collaboration as an indicator of success in academia.

Overt and covert uses of metaphor in the academic mentoring in English of Spanish undergraduate students at five European universities

Twenty-seven semi-guided office hours’ consultations between lecturers and Spanish-speaking undergraduate students were recorded at five different universities in Europe where English is the medium of instruction. The linguistic data gathered show that metaphor plays a significant role in the way that lecturers explain to visiting Erasmus students how assignments, exams or course contents should be approached and understood. When mentoring their students, lecturers often frame the advice they are giving in metaphorical ways; occasionally this is done overtly, through establishing analogies or non-literal comparisons, but more often it is done covertly, through the use of conventional metaphorical expressions that are not accompanied by words or phrases that signal that the lecturers’ words should be understood as metaphors. This article examines extracts of talk from 5 academic conversations, looking at the different ways that ideas are framed metaphorically and the kind of responses they provoke in a conversational partner. The initial hypothesis was that overt metaphors would be a particularly effective means of communicating an idea in these cross-cultural mentoring sessions. However, when we compare this with covert uses of metaphor in the corpus, there is only weak evidence that it is so. Rather, the communicative success of any use of metaphor seems to depend very largely on the way that the conversational partners enact their roles as collaborative partners in an academic conversation.

The road less traveled—Crossing gender and racial lines in comprehensive mentoring

The purpose of this study was to examine the induction process of two professors, with specific emphasis on mentoring, from entering assistant professors through their journey of tenure and promotion, and beyond. A Caucasian male professor with 40 years experience in higher education engaged in the induction process with a Caucasian female and an African-American male over the course of 10 years and 8 years, respectively. The participant researchers sought to determine if a longitudinal induction program that relied heavily upon mentoring yielded successful results, especially in the context of cross-cultural mentoring. The study operationalizes critical reflection centered on participants’ collaborations and shared norms, values, and practices resulting in four stages of induction.

Mentoring Experiences of Latina Graduate Students

Abstract In order to contribute to knowledge on the Latina graduate students’ experiences and the role of mentoring relationships in their pursuit of higher education, the purpose of this qualitative study was to interview Latina doctoral students about their lived experience. Four Latina graduate students at a graduate university in San Francisco, California were recruited by way of student email lists, flyers, and social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, and word of mouth. Participants took part in a face-to-face interview guided by semi-structured questions. Within the same cultural and cross-cultural mentoring relationship experiences described, a sequential analysis of the interview transcripts revealed the following themes consistent with the Kram model of mentoring: (a) conceptualizations of a “good mentor,” (b) how mentoring influenced their pursuit of graduate studies, and (c) the impact of mentoring on their self-confidence and self-esteem. While many studies exist on mentoring students, there is relatively little research on the mentoring experiences of Latina graduate students. It is hoped that this small study will motivate much needed further research in the mentoring needs of the Latina/o community. One possible issue revealed in this study was the absence of within culture or cross-cultural mentoring for Latina graduate students.

Building friendship through a cross-cultural mentoring program

This paper examines the efficacy of a short-term mentoring program in building cross-cultural friendships between students at an Australian university. Using a quasi-experimental approach, our study found that the mentoring program (Local Aussie Mentoring Program—LAMP) increased cross-cultural interactions for mentees, but not for mentors. About 45% of both mentors and mentees wished to continue their relationship with mentoring partners after the completion of the mentoring requirements. Mentees spent significantly more time with cross-ethnic friends than did controls after the completion of LAMP. We examined whether multicultural aspects of personality, as measured by the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), would positively correlate with cross-cultural mentoring effectiveness and cross-cultural friendship interactions (the dependent variables). Multicultural personality aspects of mentors (as measured by the MPQ) had significant positive relationships with both mentee and mentor-rated mentoring measures. All mentor MPQ scales showed some significant but small and positive relationships, with mentor friendship items, particularly Open-mindedness, Cultural Empathy and Emotional Stability. We found a significant, positive relationship between mentee Cultural Empathy and Social Initiative with cross-cultural friendship. These results show some partial support for a positive relationship between MPQ scales and cross-ethnic friendships.

Cross Cultural Mentoring – Konzept, Umsetzung und Ergebnisse an der Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht (HWR) Berlin

Summary The article describes the design and the implementation of “Cross Cultural Mentoring“ at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law). “Cross Cultural Mentoring“ aims at motivation and support of the cultural and emotional integration of students from socially underprivileged backgrounds, including fi rst-generation college students and those from migrant families. Profi les, which are based on country of origin and educational background, are used to bring students and their mentors together for the refl ection of social diversity. The results of an empirical study of the programme’s impact on cultural and emotional integration are presented and discussed.

Cross-Cultural Learning and Mentoring

Dr. Malcolm Shepherd Knowles popularized andragogy as the theory of adult learning and was referred to as the Father of Adult Education in the United States (US). As his doctoral students, the authors had extensive personal contacts with him. This paper utilizes the method of autoethnography to explore how cross-cultural learning and cross-cultural mentoring facilitate transformative learning with the development of intercultural competencies for sojourners when they interact with a significant human being in cross-cultural settings.

Our Lives, Our Stories: Storytelling workshops in Uganda’s refugee camps

This article addresses the issue of leading oral narrative workshops for displaced Acholi women in a post-war African community. It is based on research conducted during a recent project, ‘Our Lives, Our Stories’, which took place in two refugee camps in Gulu and Lira, northern Uganda, in which Dr Horsley worked with participants in a storytelling competition. It examines the rationale underpinning cross-cultural mentoring schemes such as this one and discuss the challenge of transforming difficult personal experiences into fiction. Drawing on analysis of the work produced and accounts written by other creative practitioners, it analyses the methodology underpinning the teaching of storytelling across language and cultural barriers; the value of the workshop process in training women in storytelling skills; and the function of storytelling as a form of advocacy; the role of creative non-fiction in making the stories of marginalized women heard.

HOPE: Helping Others Prepare for Education Through Cross-Cultural Mentoring

HOPE: Helping Others Prepare for Education Through Cross-Cultural Mentoring

A qualitative study of cross-cultural mentoring : Mentoring as the everyday practice of multiculturalism

A qualitative study of cross-cultural mentoring : Mentoring as the everyday practice of multiculturalism

A Reconceptualization of Mentoring in Counselor Education: Using a Relational Model to Promote Mutuality and Embrace Differences

The author examines cross-gender and cross-cultural mentoring in counselor education from a relational perspective. It is suggested that focusing on commonalities among students who are of different gender or culture will help establish a sense of mutuality in the mentoring process. Scenarios are provided to illustrate a relational model of mentoring with female counselor education students and students of color. ********** Although effective mentoring has been examined for many years in business settings, only recently has the counseling field looked at mentoring processes. Because there is significant diversity among students entering the counseling field, the provision of responsive cross-gender and cross-cultural mentoring can have a significant impact on the future success of counselor education students. Some have suggested that male proteges desire instrumental-or career-focused mentoring, whereas female proteges desire relational mentoring (Cullen & Luna, 1993; Ragins, 1989; Schwiebert, 2000). However, Liang, Tracy, Taylor, and Williams (2002) noted that in a formal mentoring program, gender matches were less important than the overall quality of the mentoring relationship. It is interesting that most research demonstrates that men and women deliver the same kind of mentoring (Frierson, Hargrove, & Lewis, 1994; O'Neill, Horton, & Crosby, 1998). Researchers have noted that both positive and negative aspects are involved in cross-gender relationships. Johnson and Huwe (2003) noted that even when a sexual attraction is not present in a cross-gender mentoring relationship, the mentor and protege may fear the perception of sexual attraction. In addition, Noe (1988) stated that often, the relationship between the mentor and the protege is interpreted as sexual in nature, leading to jealousy, resentment, and malicious gossip (p. 70). Findings from cross-gender mentoring relationships in business settings, however, suggest that if a female protege has a male mentor, her mobility and even salary level may be influenced positively (O'Neill et al., 1998; Schwiebert, 2000). This finding is likely due to the differential positions of power that men hold. Similarly, literature regarding the effectiveness of cross-cultural pairings of mentors and proteges is mixed. Bowman, Kite, Branscombe, and Williams (1998) have reported that cross-cultural mentoring can be less beneficial to the protege than an ethnically similar mentoring dyad. Students of color may find it difficult to find mentors from similar ethnic backgrounds of the limited number of people of color in counselor education. Even if students of color do develop a relationship with another person from their culture or a different underrepresented culture, the relationship may be conflicted. Blanchett and Clarke-Yapi (1999) stated that because mentors share some racial or ethnic characteristics with a protege, the assumption that they can automatically identify with the protege ignores issues of class, gender, and research interest (p. 60). One study involving psychologists of color found no evidence to support that relationships with ethnically similar mentors were more satisfying or provided more benefits than mentoring relationships with European American psychologists (Atkinson, Neville, & Casas, 1991). Along the same lines, Bowman et al. (1998) stated that African American graduate students who attend predominantly White institutions may flounder as they encounter not only a paucity of support but few African American role models or mentors. Although the research leaves many questions unanswered regarding the effectiveness of mentoring dyads involving cultural or gender differences, clearly counselor education students can benefit from effective mentoring. Some have suggested that students of color are most in need of good mentoring and that they may not succeed in academe without adequate support (Bowman et al. …

Outsiders in a White, Middle-Class System: Counselor Educators of Color in Academe

The author presents results of an exploration of the experiences of counselor educators of color, focusing on participants' relationships and interactions with the system of academe and how they are exemplified in the tenure and promotion process. Results suggest P. H. Collins's (1991) concept of the outsider academe is highly relevant. ********** Essays and narratives by faculty of color and culturally diverse faculty suggest those who differ from the White, middle-class norm experience life in academe as (e.g., Collins, 1991; James & Farmer, 1993; Mindiola, 1995). McKay (1997) described how the dynamics of the larger society, perpetuated in academe, situate European American faculty and faculty of color within systems of power and privilege: American and all Western society remain provinces in which white men, and some white women, of a particular class with particular dominant ideologies determine the nature of all of our existences. Thus, even without deliberate intentions to enforce dominance over others, the relations between whites and the other in white institutions of higher education develop and emerge out of a dynamic that reifies racist and sexist paradigms of power and powerlessness. (pp. 15-16) The counseling profession promotes in its practitioners empathy, genuineness, regard, and, increasingly; appreciation for and understanding of diversity. Yet, if the literature suggests that faculty of color generally experience life in academe, and are positioned therein, as outsiders in a White, middle-class system, what will be revealed by a study of the experiences of counseling faculty of color? R. L. Young, Chamley, and Withers (1990) found that counselor education departments reported that 90.6% of the faculty were European American, compared with 79.8% being European American in the total U.S. population. Similarly, Dinsmore and England (1996) found that 15% of counselor educators were non-White, compared with 25% being non-White in the general population. Although the hiring rate for ethnic minority faculty in counselor education has been slowly increasing, R. L. Young et al. (1990) projected that the current rate will actually perpetuate minority underrepresentation (p. 153). In addition, counselor educators of color are more likely to be nontenured or part-time faculty than are European American counselor educators (Bradley & Holcomb-McCoy, 2002; Brinson & Kottler, 1993). Difficulties in securing tenure track positions or in achieving tenure may force some faculty of color to leave academe to seek employment elsewhere. An important step in recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty is to gain understanding of the day-to-day experiences of counselor educators of color in predominantly European American counseling departments. The counseling literature includes several articles and essays that shed some light on these experiences. For example, in their exploration of cross-cultural mentoring in counselor education, Brinson and Kottler (1993) found that cross-cultural communication and power dynamics between faculty of color and White faculty may come into play in mentoring relationships. They also discussed feelings of isolation that women and men of color may experience when working in predominantly White counselor education programs. Personal narratives by counselor educators of color that appeared in a Journal of Counseling & Development special issue on racism (e.g., Durodoye, 1999; Jackson, 1999) suggested that the experience of intentional and unintentional racism on individual and systemic levels presents ongoing challenges in the professional lives of faculty of color. However, in-depth exploration and analysis are still needed of the experiences of counselor educators of color and of the perceived and manifest consequences of these experiences. This study, which involved exploration and analysis of the intersection of ethnicity, social class, and gender in the lives of counselor educators of color, was undertaken to help fill this need. …