The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (2019) / Chapter Skim
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4 Mentorship Structures: What Forms Does Mentorship Take?
4 Mentorship Structures: What Forms Does Mentorship Take?
Pages 75-102
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From page 75... ...
Mentorship structures refer to the ways in which mentoring relationships are created and enacted, whether they are assigned formally or develop informally, and whether there are single or multiple mentors or mentees. Mentorship is commonly considered a dyadic relationship, an interaction between one mentor and one mentee.
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From page 76... ...
However, it is helpful to consider how different educational environments may foster relationships that are more or less formal, especially consider ing that research mentorship in STEMM rarely fits easily into either the formal or the informal constructs. Formal, Informal, and Research Mentorship in STEMM Only a few of the studies in STEMM have examined informal mentorship, and there appears to be no systematic studies comparing the processes of mentorship and outcomes of formal versus informal mentorship in STEMM.4 The research that has been done indicates that formal and informal relationships may offer complementary and over lapping forms of support.
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From page 77... ...
Formal and Informal Mentorship Outside of STEMM Despite the lack of research on formal and informal mentoring relationships in STEMM contexts, meta-analytic work on mentorship in workplace settings and academic settings in general -- including but not limited to STEMM -- suggests that mentees view informal relationships as more effective than formal mentoring relationships, but the differences are small in magnitude (Eby et al., 2013)
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From page 78... ...
Thus, findings about formal mentorship in other work place settings may not translate to research mentorship even though research mentorship shares many characteristics of formal mentorship. Mentees in informal mentoring relationships within organizational settings report receiving higher levels of career and psychosocial support and having higher-quality relationships than do individuals in formal mentorship programs (Chao et al., 1992; Inzer and Crawford, 2005)
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From page 79... ...
However, a single mentor might not have the entire suite of knowledge, skills, abilities, or connections needed by their mentee (DeCastro et al., 2013; Halvorson et al., 2015; Yun et al., 2016) , suggesting that other mentorship structures beyond a dyad could be important for mentees' success.
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From page 80... ...
Figure 4-1 depicts mentorship configurations from a social network perspective,6 with a focus on ties between individuals and charac teristics of mentors and mentees as both providers and recipients of unique information and access to resources (Burt, 2000; Higgins and Kram, 2001)
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From page 81... ...
.8 Of interest are the studies outside of STEMM that have been able to attribute mentee outcomes to non-dyadic mentorship structures, at least to some extent, either by asking M.B.A. student mentees 7 e Th outcomes of this pilot could not be obtained from the limited data provided by the study.
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From page 82... ...
There is also an opportunity for improvements in the mea surement of mentorship structures9 and the incorporation of study designs that allow for causal inferences or comparative claims to be made about the effects of specific mentorship structures. Moreover, there are few assessments of how different mentorship configurations relate to mentee or mentor outcomes.
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From page 83... ...
These approaches may allow researchers to connect mentee outcomes to mentorship structures and support functions -- such as those listed in Table 2-1 -- which can then be used to inform practice. A similar approach may be useful for delineating the particular benefits or affordances of mentorship efforts that are embedded in larger programs (Yip and Kram, 2017)
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From page 84... ...
In other instances, mentorship triads may manifest more as dyads with interactions between pairs of individuals in the triad but not three-way interactions, a structure described as an "open" triad. s gnificantly more likely than White or Asian students to report being in closed triads.13 i For women, being part of an open triad mentorship structure appeared to have a nega tive effect on the development of their scientific identity, intentions to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
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From page 85... ...
. Another study highlights the value of cohorts for providing peer support and socialization opportunities among deaf mentees that would otherwise be absent in a strictly dyadic mentoring relationship (Majocha et al., 2018)
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From page 86... ...
. In the absence of available mentors, or to supplement effective mentors, UR STEMM students are likely to mentor each other or form mentoring groups with peers who are at approximately the same stage of career development, an approach referred to as near-peer or step-ahead mentoring.17 One comparative study that examined traditional, peer, and step-ahead mentoring relationships in the organizational setting found that employees in traditional mentoring relationships had the highest job satisfaction.
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From page 87... ...
programs in STEM. Network Mentorship Mentorship networks -- the constellations of mentoring relationships and resources that a mentee taps for support -- have gained increasing recognition both within and outside of STEMM (Higgins and Kram, 2001; Long et al., 2014; Sorcinelli and Yun, 2007; van Emmerik, 2004)
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From page 88... ...
, there have only been limited systematic studies that identify the nature and effectiveness of the mentorship that occurs in these spaces.18 According to conversations committee members and staff had with STEMM stu dents during listening sessions, online mentorship provided opportunities for mentees to gain access to career and psychosocial support when they were not getting their needs met by local mentors. STEMM students reported that online mentorship forums provided information, support, and problem solving that was otherwise not available to mentees ("resource node" in Figure 4-1, panel D)
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From page 89... ...
Those professors are now using #BLACKandSTEM to identify and recruit students and staff for their own labs. VanguardSTEM is another online STEM mentorship community that seeks to provide mentorship experiences for individuals of color, gender nonconforming individuals, and other marginalized populations in STEMM.21 Every Wednesday, a woman or nonbinary person of color in STEMM is featured through VanguardSTEM's Twitter page and blog.
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From page 90... ...
23 ore information is available at https://www.adea.org/GoDental/The_application_to_dental_school__ M ADEA_AADSAS.aspx; accessed August 15, 2019. 24 ore information is available at https://www.naahp.org/home; accessed April 04, 2019.
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From page 91... ...
Research has also examined the effects of mentorship in medical school. One study of mentorship groups in medical school designed to increase students' reflectivity for professional development found mixed results,27 with some students reporting positive reactions to the groups and others reporting negative reactions to them.
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From page 92... ...
A comprehensive review of programs that cite mentorship as a component is beyond the scope of this report, but the committee looked carefully at several examples and designs, as well as the ways in which programs can systematically provide mentorship or complement what individual mentors might provide. The remainder of this chapter describes a range of example intervention programs that include mentoring experiences and have some level of evaluation of the program.31 However, assessments of program 28 ere is some research on mentorship and mentorship programs for medical fellows (equivalent to Th postdoctoral scholars)
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From page 93... ...
, including the following: • Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (MARC U-STAR) • Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement • Initiative for Maximizing Student Development • Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP)
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From page 94... ...
However, systematic attempts to disaggregate the effects of the mentoring relationship(s) on persistence to advanced STEMM degrees remain an open opportunity for scholarship.
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From page 95... ...
Ongoing analysis reveals the effects of these groups last well past when they have continued meeting, and further analysis can determine if this group mentorship structure influences career outcomes. In 2014, NIH created the Diversity Program Consortium,40 comprising 10 multiinstitutional sites around the country focusing on increasing the number of UR undergraduates who persist into STEM graduate programs as well as centralizing resources to dramatically increase the quality and quantity of mentorship and professional development coaching that is available (Hurtado, 2015)
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From page 96... ...
.43 The REM program aims to provide high school students, STEM teachers, and undergraduate STEM students and faculty with a particular emphasis on UR students and veterans enrolled in postsecondary education, with mentored, hands-on research experiences that may enhance career and academic outcomes among participants who might not otherwise have engaged in a research project. According to NSF, effective REM programs have many of the following characteristics: • Mentorship training for researchers and affiliated graduate students or postdoctoral researchers • Well-designed, introductory training for research participants • Six to 10 weeks of full-time summer research • Continued mentorship of research participants throughout the academic year • Participation of research participants in research team meetings and topic-related conferences or workshops • Guidance for research participants in coauthoring publications and/or posters44 An assessment of one REM program at City College of New York concluded that the program provided a "novel and effective platform to allow more underrepresented students in the greater NYC area to participate in our multidisciplinary research" (Zhu et al., 2016)
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. Institutional Programs One well-known institutionally based STEM intervention program is the Meyerhoff Scholars Program (MSP)
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From page 98... ...
. Similarly, Xavier University of Louisiana also houses the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development, which provides faculty mentorship education by hosting faculty workshops geared toward philosophies of mentoring, communication between men tors and mentees, setting goals and expectations, the concepts of stereotype threat and implicit bias,46 successfully identifying issues and resolutions, and effective mentorship practices (NASEM, 2019)
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From page 99... ...
In fact, Murrell posited, it may be that the best mentorship programs are those that purposefully structure developmental challenges to enable growth to take place in the safety of a holding environment. Employing the concept of holding environments also implies changing practice, because it involves developing approaches for changing the environment of an institution, which is a more difficult proposition than simply developing a mentorship program.
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From page 100... ...
It was beyond the scope of the committee to describe these programs in depth. 48 ascade mentoring involves midlevel mentees becoming mentors to incoming mentees, while main C taining their mentoring relationships with more senior mentors.
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From page 101... ...
Participants who had less favorable relationships with their research advisors reported drawing more heavily on support from other sources. Finally, the participants felt that the PROMISE program helped them to cultivate and maintain their developmental networks, providing them access to 49 More information is available at https://eswnonline.org/welcome/; accessed August 8, 2019.
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102 Th e S c i e n c e o f E f f e c t i v e Me n to r sh i p i n ST E M M more potential mentors. This research illustrates the value of having access to multiple mentors and how a program can facilitate access to developmental networks (Griffin et al., 2018; Tull et al., 2017)
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