Mentoring demonstrably increases the retention of undergraduate and
graduate students and is moreover invaluable in shaping and nurturing
academic careers. With the increasing diversification of the student
body and of faculty ranks, there's a clear need for culturally
responsive mentoring across these dimensions.
Recognizing the low priority that academia has generally given to
extending the practice of mentoring - let alone providing mentoring for
Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and first generation
students - this book offers a proven and holistic model of mentoring
practice, developed in the field of psychology, that not only helps
mentees navigate their studies and the academy but provides them with an
understanding of the systemic and racist barriers they will encounter,
validates their cultural roots and contributions, and attends to their
personal development.
Further recognizing the demands that mentoring places on already busy
faculty, the model addresses ways of distributing the work, inviting
White and BIPOC faculty to participate, developing mentees' capacities
to mentor those that follow them, building a network of mentoring across
generations, and adopting group mentoring. Intentionally planned and
implemented, the model becomes self-perpetuating, building an
intergenerational cadre of mentors who can meet the growing and
continuing needs of the BIPOC community.
Opening with a review of the salient research on effective mentoring,
and chapters that offer minority students' views on what has worked for
them, as well as reflections by faculty mentors, the core of the book
describes the Freedom Train model developed by the godfather of Black
psychology, Dr. Joseph White, setting out the principles and processes
that inform the Multiracial / Multiethnic / Multicultural (M3) Mentoring
Model that evolved from it, and offers an example of group mentoring.
While addressed principally to faculty interested in undertaking
mentoring, and supporting minoritized students and faculty, the book
also addresses Deans and Chairs and how they can create Freedom Train
communities and networks by changing the cultural climate of their
institutions, providing support, and modifying faculty evaluations and
rewards that will in turn contribute to student retention as well as
creative and productive scholarship and research.
This is a timely and inspiring book for anyone in the academy concerned
with the success of BIPOC students and invigorating their department's
or school's scholarship.
