Mentoring Experiences of Indo-Caribbean Immigrants in the United States

This research explored perceptions of Indo-Caribbean proteges in cross-cultural mentoring experiences with White, Black, Black Cherokee, Indian and Hispanic mentors. Environmental forces, mentor influences, and knowledge sharing shaped these relationships. This research implies that mentors’ and proteges’ understanding of each others’ values, beliefs, and attitudes enhance outcomes of the relationship. The increase in cultural diversity from high rates of migration to the U. S. (Camarota, 2007) has resulted in mentoring relationships where either or both participants, that is, mentor and protege, are from different ethnic cultures. Mentoring is defined as an “intense caring relationship in which persons with more experience work with less experienced persons to promote both professional and personal development” (Caffarella, 1992, p. 38). In cross-cultural mentoring, mentors and proteges from different racial or ethnic cultures confront social and cultural identities, goals, expectations, values, and beliefs (Cross & Lincoln, 2005) in an effort to “achieve a higher level of potency in education and society” (Mullen, 2005, p. 6). Good cross-cultural mentoring relationships require participants’ willingness to acknowledge and understand the experiences of those from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds (Davidson & Foster-Johnson, 2001). Understanding diverse backgrounds leads to improved intercultural communication, enhanced flexibility, adaptability, unity and acceptance, awareness of differences, broader perspectives, emotional satisfaction, and increased creativity and productivity (Brinson & Kottler, 1993). Cross-cultural mentoring relationships encompass participants’ “values, beliefs, and behaviors.defined by nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, physical characteristics, sexual orientation, economic status, education, profession, religion, organizational affiliation, and any other grouping that generates identifiable patterns” (Bennett & Bennett, 2003, p. 150). As a result, mentors and proteges confront a range of thinking styles, social and cultural identities, expertise and aspirations (Cross & Lincoln, 2005) which influence deference to authority, conflict management, assertiveness, self-concept and relationships (Marquardt & Loan, 2006). Problem Statement Although demographics and migration patterns in the U. S. have changed, mentoring studies still focus on European Americans (Blake-Beard, 1999) and African Americans (Dickey, 1996; Jackson & Harris, 2007). Fewer studies explore mentoring of Latin Americans (Cavazos & Cavazos, 2010; Roland, 2008), Asian Americans (Henderson & Chan, 2005; Lew, Chang & Wang, 2005), and Native Americans (Portman & Garrett, 2005). Within these studies, proteges reported experiencing acceptance, visibility, increased achievement, socialization, trust and relationship building that enhanced their learning (Jeria, 2002; White, 2006). Caribbean immigrants in the U. S. include descendants of Europeans, Africans, East Indians, Hispanics, Indonesians, Javanese, Chinese and native or Aboriginal Indians (Premdas, 1995). Indo-Caribbeans, descendants of East Indians who were taken to the Caribbean as