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2 The Science of Mentoring Relationships: What Is Mentorship?
Pages 33-50

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From page 33...
... Mentoring relationships can be intentionally created and developed, and there is a substantial scholarship -- a science of mentoring relationship1 -- to inform this process. This chapter provides an overview of historical and evolving perspectives on mentoring, introduces a working definition of mentorship, and summarizes several theoretical frameworks supporting this definition.
From page 34...
... • A mentoring experience may provide professional and career development support, role modeling, and psychosocial support; mentoring experiences should include planned activities with a mentor. • Mentoring relationships are personal and reciprocal, though online mentorship options are creating opportunities to build virtual mentoring relationships.
From page 35...
... Support Career guidance Mentor provides support for assessing and choosing an academic and career path by evaluating mentees' strengths, weaknesses, interests, and abilities. Mentor's role includes helping mentees reflect and think critically about goals;d •  •  facilitating mentees' reflection on and exploration of their interests, abilities, beliefs, and ideas;e •  reviewing mentees' progress toward goals; challenging mentees' decisions or avoidance of decisions;f and •  helping mentees to realize their professional aspriations.g •  Skill development Mentor educates, evaluates, and challenges mentees academically and professionally; tutors or provides training; and focuses on subject learning.h Sponsorship Mentor publicly acknowledges the achievements of mentees and advocates for mentees.
From page 36...
... . Although Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend continues to be a useful mentoring resource in STEMM, knowledge about mentoring relationships has since expanded.
From page 37...
... . Mentoring relationship structures can include the following: • A single mentor working with a single mentee in a classic dyadic relationship • A group of mentors sharing their collective wisdom with one mentee • One mentor working with multiple mentees • Peer and near-peer mentoring structures • Online peer communities • Programmatic mentoring • Mentoring experiences delivered through carefully constructed short-term seminars, work shops, or presentations Although this last format challenges the idea of mentoring relationships involving personal interaction between individuals, a mentee can see it as being equivalent to or sometimes superior to what can be obtained in an individual, dyadic relationship (Charleston et al., 2014; Jackson and Lor, 2018)
From page 38...
... and relational (e.g., psychosocial functions) aspects in mentorship that contribute to effective mentoring relationships and mentee outcomes.4 Mentorship is often conflated with coaching, advising, role modeling, and sponsor ship.
From page 39...
... .7 Emerging evidence suggests that mentoring practices that include navigating power differentials between mentors and mentees especially across racial or gender differences, reducing stereotype threat, and affirming a sense of belonging and science identity may contribute to fuller representation of individuals from underrepresented groups in the sciences (Byars Winston et al., 2018; Estrada et al., 2017) .8 Effective mentorship occurs when mentors and mentees develop trust, share strengths and limitations, and identify with and authentically engage with one another (Blake-Beard et al., 2011)
From page 40...
... .10 Mentorship Stages Mentorship behaviors can be applied in some or all stages of mentoring relation ships. Groundbreaking research published in 1985 conceptualized four sequential stages through which mentoring relationships evolve based on qualitative research in organi zational settings (Kram, 1985a)
From page 41...
... For each theory presented, its primary tenets are explained first, followed by a description of the theory as applied to mentorship. Ecological Systems Theory Primary Tenets According to the ecological systems theory framework, individuals participating in mentorship bring to a mentoring relationship various behaviors, personal factors, and environmental variables that shape their mentorship needs and expectations and their responses to mentorship.
From page 42...
... Social Social interactions Focus on how •  Who is connected in a given mentoring network Network in a network vary individuals are and how does that influence mentee success? Theory by strength of connected in a social •  What social networks are effective in developing relationships and system, for what mentees and do those vary across diverse the resources purpose, and to what groups?
From page 43...
... From an ecological perspective, mentorship can be thought of as a systems property rather than as an interaction between a mentor and mentee, which suggests that research on mentorship and the practice of mentorship should also focus on devel opmental networks, institutional context, and societal macrosystems. Social Cognitive Career Theory Primary Tenets Building on formative work on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986)
From page 44...
... Indeed, an empirical test of an expanded SCCT model with biology undergraduate mentees found that mentees' percep tions of their mentors' effectiveness strongly shaped their beliefs in their own research skills and career knowledge and predicted their research self-efficacy beliefs, which in turn predicted their enrollment in a Ph.D. or graduate medical program (Byars-Winston et al., 2015)
From page 45...
... This model illustrates the importance of how students' profes sional identity -- in this context, their science identity -- and their endorsement of scien tific community values predict their intentions to persist in STEMM career pathways. Application Examining mentorship through a TIMSI lens suggests that faculty mentors social ize students into science careers and culture by providing an example of the attitudes, norms, and behaviors required to achieve success similar to that of the mentor.
From page 46...
... Application Social exchange theory provides a means for understanding the potential benefits and costs of mentorship for both mentors and mentees, thereby enabling institutions to create structures and put policies in place to maximize the benefits and minimize or mitigate the costs. Social exchange theory emphasizes that the interdependent transac tions between the participants in a relationship have the potential to generate high quality relationships when the benefits of the exchange are greater than perceived costs (Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005)
From page 47...
... Social Capital Theory Primary Tenets Social capital theory addresses the social reproduction of inequality, or how those who have power take advantage of their social networks and connections to retain power from one generation to the next (Bourdieu, 1977, 1986)
From page 48...
... Social capital theory suggests that mentors should help mentees learn the values of their professions and fields of study. This theory also supports the idea that mentors should help their mentees maintain personal and professional integrity and navigate cultural and political systems (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009; Pfund et al., 2016; Zambrana et al., 2015)
From page 49...
... Consequently, the behavioral strategies used by individuals in a given mentorship system, that is, the social structure, will depend on how they are connected, to what degree they are connected, and for what purpose. The frequency of contact, shared attributes between mentors and mentees, and perceived emotional quality of the mentoring relationship have been found to positively associate with mentees' self-efficacy beliefs, academic success, and a positive sense of identity (Haeger and Fresquez, 2016; Santos and Reigadas, 2004)
From page 50...
... Mentorship research has been informed by myriad theoretical frameworks, including the six that are discussed here. There is no single theoretical framework that integrates all relevant variables (e.g., antecedents, processes, correlates, outcomes)


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