Intercultural mentoring

An older view of mentoring, which was the predominant view in the early stages of the formal research on mentoring (e.g., Levinson et al 1978; Roche, 1979) saw the mentor as an expert providing unidirectional advice and opening doors for their mentee. This view has been replaced with a view of the mentor as someone who creates a conversational environment where a mentee may ask questions, investigate concerns, and share thoughts before coming up with their own solutions - effectively allowing the mentor and mentee to be co-creators of knowledge (Felten et al., 2013).  This new view is deeply rooted in viewing the success of the mentoring relationship as the success of the social interaction between the mentor and mentee, which require trust, compassion, understanding, and an acceptance that knowledge and development is co-created (e.g., Palinscar, 1998; Cobb-Roberts et al, 2017).  Only when the mentor is able to see their mentee as the expert of their own experience and be truly caring and curious to help the mentee explore their own lived experience is the relationship fully actualised (e.g., Fries-Britt & Snider, 2015).  

One key element in being able to meet and support their mentee is understanding that mentoring is a not merely a meeting of two people in an equal setting, but a meeting of two cultures, lived experiences, biases, and hopes and expectations set in a hierarchical setting, where the nature of mentor/mentee, and faculty/student relationship is partly guided by power dynamics with the mentor/faculty person holding the majority of the power. This is even more pronounced when the mentor is part of the majority race and is familiar with the cultural and education setting.

So, when mentoring across cultures and specifically when mentoring underrepresented minorities, it is therefore extra essential to examine unconscious biases (e.g., Dominguez & Sears, 2017), and to truly listen and seek to understand the context and lived experience of the mentee.

A series of aspects that are key to explore in order to best mentor in an intercultural context

Image Becoming aware of personal biases The best way to reduce unconscious biases is to become aware of them.	Image Gaining cross-cultural awareness Considerations and practical suggestions to becoming more culturally sensitive.
Image Challenging power Mentoring relationships are inherently hierarchical in nature and are therefore also shaped by power dynamics.	Image Being antiracist Anti-racism is the opposition to racism.  It is a way of being that actively identifies with explicitly opposing racism.

Recommended Texts

The Sage Handbook of Mentoring