Comparing Alternative Voices in the Academy: Navigating the Complexity of Mentoring Relationships from Divergent Ethnic Backgrounds

Abstract

In this article, we explore the personal mentoring experiences of two female scholars of diverse ethnic backgrounds across research-intensive institutions. Female faculty of color face substantial barriers to success in academe including mental and emotional discomfort, being treated as symbolically representing their race and gender, and social isolation. There is a distinct paucity of literature that describes the experiences of American Indian women in the Academy. Many women of Western European descent face similar barriers, regardless of racial majority status. This auto-ethnographic comparative study explores the degree to which the experiences of women from differing ethnicities might lend insight into the ways in which barriers to success both converge and differ at the microlevel. These convergent themes of mentorship have the possibility of providing insights for the development of intentional mentorship practice to support junior faculty and doctoral students engaged in scholarship.

Keywords:

• faculty mentoring
• American Indian mentoring
• graduate student mentoring
• women peer mentoring
• American Indian leadership