Equity-Minded Mentorship as Courageous Action

These are tough times for academic leaders and faculty who value diversity (the presence of students, faculty and staff with different identities and experiences), equity (fairness and justice), and inclusion (making everyone in your classrooms and on your campus feel valued, respected and welcomed). Executive orders and Dear Colleague letters have called colleges’ DEI efforts into question and have aimed to end programs and initiatives focused on recruiting and retaining staff, faculty and students of color, as well as those with other minoritized identities. Many institutions of higher education are succumbing to the pressure—some have eliminated DEI statements and professional development opportunities or have censored how faculty discuss race, gender and sexuality in core courses.

Right now, it is imperative that individual faculty and staff remember that personal attitudes and behaviors—particularly those modeled and transmitted to students and early-career scholars in the context of mentoring relationships—constitute a powerful opportunity for courageous action. More than ever, mentorship provides an avenue for continuing our commitments to advancing equity in higher education and creating more inclusive learning environments.

Decades of research on mentoring outcomes for college students, graduate students, new faculty and administrative leaders reveal that a quality mentoring relationship is linked to increased academic success, retention, productivity, confidence, career aspirations and an abiding sense of hope. Moreover, mentoring maps directly with what Terrell L. Strayhorn calls a sense of belonging: the experience of mattering and feeling accepted, respected and valued by important others on campus. It may be no surprise that mentoring-linked belonging is particularly salient for members of our campus communities with minoritized identities, or members of groups that are subject to oppression and marginalization based on race, gender identity and expression, ability status, ethnicity, religion, and/or sexual identity.

Although talent is equally distributed across all socio-cultural groups, access to mentorship is not. Minoritized early-career colleagues report fewer mentoring interactions with faculty. Reasons include erroneous notions that mentees and mentors must share cultural identities, unconscious bias in mentee selection (we are all drawn to mentees who remind us of ourselves) and anxiety about making relational mistakes with mentees who identify differently. In our book On Being a Mentor (Routledge, 2024), we propose an equity-minded approach to inclusive mentoring relationships. This approach requires faculty to be thoughtful, intentional and humble, especially when mentoring across cultural differences. It also invites faculty to become more comfortable feeling uncomfortable, empathizing with the marginalization many scholars continue to face and using their relationships as an intentional site of advocacy and support.

Here are several relational tactics and practices for faculty, staff and administrators who aspire to be inclusive and equity-minded mentors, perhaps as a deliberate act of resistance toward antidiversity efforts and a courageous commitment to doubling down on ensuring minoritized scholars are respected and included.

• Curate an inclusive mindset: Effective and equity-minded mentors understand that diversity without inclusion and belonging is hollow. They work at inclusion in all their academic work because they understand the important connection between inclusion and belonging—the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected and valued, both broadly in the campus community and in specific developmental relationships. Consider the power of curious questions, or brief mentor-of-the-moment affirmations, which occur when we seize everyday moments to build esteem and belonging (e.g., saying, “They sure got it right selecting you for our program,” or “I can see you as a faculty member one day. I’d be curious about your ideal career track”). Nothing may be a more powerful antidote to identity-based marginalization or impostor feelings than feeling noticed, seen and valued by a more seasoned colleague.

• Demonstrate cultural curiosity: Cultural curiosity means being curious about mentees’ life stories and experiences, both in and outside the academy. Recognize that a mentee’s experiences, needs and expectations for what care looks like are often shaped by their identities. For example, while new graduate students may generally want their advisers to help them become independent researchers, one study found that those who were first-generation college students often expected more hands-on guidance and direct feedback about how to do things the “right way” than their continuing-generation peers. For Black and Latinx students in another study, feeling a sense of care and interest in who they were as whole people, in and outside their academic programs, was key to their satisfaction in their mentoring relationships and success.

And don’t just listen: Do your homework. It can be tempting to simply ask marginalized mentees about their experiences with inequality and injustice. But that unfairly burdens them with emotional and cognitive labor. An equity-minded mentor takes the time to self-educate and deepen understanding about the experiences of minoritized members of the academy. Then, ask curious questions (e.g., “I’m curious about the things people of color/women of color in our program find most challenging day-to-day—things that I might not notice. Would you feel comfortable sharing some of what you encounter on campus?”).

• Practice cultural humility: Distinct from cultural competence, cultural humility encourages a constant state of learning rather than achieving a state of knowledge or mastery about other cultures. When mentors embrace cultural humility, they place high value on their mentee as the expert of their lived experience as a multicultural being, focusing their own efforts on being an active and working collaborator. Cultural humility normalizes not knowing. Cultural humility may mean asking about a mentee’s journey to their academic program or what’s most important to them outside of work and school. With permission and care, equity-minded mentors inquire about their mentees’ backgrounds and beliefs. When challenges arise, these mentors are able to listen to and validate their mentees’ feelings, aiming to understand experiences they may not have had themselves.

• Self-reflect: Who we are inevitably informs how we show up in cross-cultural relationships. It can be powerful for our mentees to hear about our beliefs and values, as well as our reflections on how our lives and experiences inform our work. Our experiences map to our awareness of power or oppression, and reflecting on the biases we all hold can make us more attentive and attuned to our mentees’ experiences. For instance, consider conducting an honest, soul-searching audit of those you are currently mentoring. Do most of your mentees look like you or share your identity and background? If so, you might have a terrific opportunity to deliberately diversify both your mentees and the colleagues you loudly sponsor for career-enhancing opportunities. If you find your network to be less diverse than you anticipated, recommit to reaching out to early-career colleagues who have identities that are different from your own.
• Put some skin in the game as an advocate and public ally: Much has been written about sponsorship, discussing the importance of people using their power and networks to advance others’ careers and highlighting how women and men of color are less likely to have access to the same levels of advocacy. Equity-minded mentors are thoughtful about nominating their mentees for opportunities and awards and speaking well of them to colleagues. They know that the talents and gifts of early-career colleagues with marginalized identities may be missed or overlooked and are vocal champions. But beyond that, equity-minded mentors act as allies, interrupting when they see and hear their colleagues engage in oppressive or biased behaviors (whether directed at their mentees or elsewhere) and generally advocating for more just practices and policies that support and advance equitable and fair learning environments.

Unlike formal educational programs and faculty trainings, inclusive and equity-minded mentoring relationships cannot be legislated or prohibited. Because mentorships in academe serve as an essential route of transmission for the values, ethical principles and cultural mores of our various professions, our mentoring of students and early-career scholars offers a powerful opportunity to become allies, accomplices and relational partners with historically underrepresented mentees. Let’s seize this opportunity to renew our commitment to mentorship and building relationships that honor our mentees’ uniqueness and humanity, combating individual and systemic injustice, and promoting learning environments where all can thrive.