Brian Burt, of Iowa State, studies the experience of minority students in the sciences and engineering. He leads workshops to train professors to be good mentors.
A few years ago, Iowa State University began pairing up minority doctoral students with faculty and student mentors to improve rates of retention and completion. It has also stepped up training for faculty mentors.
Brian A. Burt, an assistant professor in the School of Education, has led some of the workshops. His research examines the experiences of minority graduate students in science and engineering.
Mr. Burt spoke with The Chronicle about why minority students need more access to mentoring, why mentoring makes some professors nervous, and how faculty members can improve students’ relationships with their peers. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Brian Burt, of Iowa State, studies the experience of minority students in the sciences and engineering. He leads workshops to train professors to be good mentors.
A few years ago, Iowa State University began pairing up minority doctoral students with faculty and student mentors to improve rates of retention and completion. It has also stepped up training for faculty mentors.
Brian A. Burt, an assistant professor in the School of Education, has led some of the workshops. His research examines the experiences of minority graduate students in science and engineering.
Mr. Burt spoke with The Chronicle about why minority students need more access to mentoring, why mentoring makes some professors nervous, and how faculty members can improve students’ relationships with their peers. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you begin to train professors in mentoring Ph.D. students?
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First, situate why mentoring is even important. Some faculty members haven’t been in school for decades, so they might be out of touch. It’s very easy to think, “I was able to do a Ph.D. program, and therefore everybody should.” The context and climate are likely different than when they were in school.
What do you mean by that?
Even if the faculty member is a person of color, there hadn’t been a black president, and people delegitimizing him, 15, 20, 30 years ago. So students feel and experience that differently than someone from the past. If you’re not a person of color, and you have the same narrative of “When I was in grad school, things were hard for me as well,” that’s completely missing the boat. Students can withdraw when they constantly hear messaging that feels like people are invalidating what they are going through.
In the workshop you conducted, you mentioned that some faculty members expressed reservations about mentoring. What did they say made them nervous?
For some people, it was being from a different culture — for example, a white woman mentoring a black woman or a Latino male. Some professors were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to relate.
Understand it will be like any other relationship and will take time to nurture and build. There has to be a bond, and that takes time and work. The conversation relieved the pressure, and people felt, OK, I don’t have to be perfect from Day One. We’ll learn this together.
In doctoral education, people often use “adviser” and “mentor” interchangeably. They’re not always the same. What’s the value of having a mentor in addition to your research adviser?
We never want students to think that one person can serve as a one-stop shop. People should have multiple mentors. You should have a mentor who reads your paper. You should have a mentor who you can call when you need to vent. You should have a mentor who helps you with work-life balance. No one person is an expert at all of those things.
Do administrators or programs create any incentives for faculty members to serve as mentors?
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I can’t speak to that at the university level. But on my annual evaluation, administrators acknowledge the work I’m doing mentoring students. I would love to say that happens everywhere, but I’m not naïve.
Mentoring is important to all doctoral students. Why is it especially important for minority graduate students?
In an ideal world, there would be more black faculty members, so black students could symbolically see representations of themselves. Because we don’t have that, there needs to be something more. These students do need support in ways that some people receive just by being who they are, based on their race or gender.
Is there a risk of stigmatizing minority students by assuming they need more or different support?
The issue is, where is the stigma coming from? Stigma can be the result of an individual thinking he or she has a deficit. But it can also come from when other people who don’t have something make someone else feel bad that they don’t have support. I try to tell students of color that everyone needs help. I tell people I still have mentors, many mentors. Some of that is clearing up the notion that having a mentor is synonymous with deficit.
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Your research has also examined the importance of peer relationships. How can programs improve those?
Peer-to-peer relationships can be equally as damaging for students. What happens when you know you’re supposed to be in a study group, but the people in your program don’t want you in the study group because they don’t think you’re good enough because of your race? Faculty members can help, by purposely crafting student study groups in their classrooms. It takes more work on the faculty member’s part, but it might be the small touch needed to break these barriers.
Vimal Patel, a reporter at The New York Times, previously covered student life, social mobility, and other topics for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
