Literature review: the gap between mentoring theory and practice for diverse women faculty

ABSTRACT

Mentoring remains a beneficial resource for faculty career advancement. Yet, women faculty across African, Latinx, Asian, and Native American Diasporas often report their career advancement needs are unfulfilled by mentors. As a result, a gap exists between mentoring theory and practical application in higher education. Some scholars identified one factor contributing to this gap is Caucasian mentors not addressing faculty gendered and ethnic intersectional identity and the implications of that identity in the professoriate. Also, mentoring literature discussions omit the importance of facilitating learning, particularly when exploring the needs of women faculty across ethnic groups. I explored the gap between the proposed functions of mentoring and the challenges of cross-cultural mentoring and learning as a component of mentoring. The aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice by providing readers with key mentor behaviors identified in qualitative and quantitative research that facilitate learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Diverse
• mentoring
• women faculty
• workplace learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carrie Graham

Dr. Carrie Graham has taught in higher education since 2003 and her research explores factors that impede and support adult learning with a special focus on faculty and marginalized groups in higher education.