Mentorship in the academy: barriers and strategies for African American female faculty

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have established patterns of experiences for African American female faculty in the academy at predominantly White universities (PWIs). The purpose of this qualitative study was to document African American female academics’ experiences with mentorship. This study explores the complexity of the tenure process of nine women (both tenured- and tenure-track) at PWIs and the effects of mentorship through an online survey. Findings indicated that African American female academicians at PWIs faced multi-faceted challenges and successes in mentorship relationships, and described experiences with incivility (i.e., exploitative mentorship and workplace bullying). Implications for further areas of higher education policy advocacy are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Black/African American female faculty
• tenure
• mentorship in academia
• exploitative mentorship

Acknowledgments

I greatly appreciate the women who participated in this study, as well as my colleague and her insight on decolonizing academia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.