Expectations and Perceptions of Undergraduate Research Mentoring: Comparing First Generation, Low Income White/Caucasian and African American Students

This study examines how student scholars from first generation college and low income (FGLI) backgrounds and/or African American students perceive a research mentoring relationship. There has been much literature on the positive benefits of participating in mentored undergraduate research for student development (Bauer and Bennett, 2002; Nagda, Gregerman, Jonides, von Hippel, and Lerner 1998; Boenninger and Hakim, 1999). Nonetheless, these studies did not focus on the particular features of the student-mentor relationship. Further most studies of mentoring minority and or first generation students have focused largely on issues of retention and graduation (see Nnadozie, Ishiyama and Chon, 2001; Gregerman, 1999) rather than on student perceptions of the benefits of mentored undergraduate research. The literature that examines the dynamics of the mentoring relationship mostly focuses either on ascertaining best practices by examining what "mentors" believe work, excluding the student perspective (see Monte, 2001; Schultz, 2001). Others that have examined student perceptions of the mentoring relationship have done so generally without examining differences between continuing generation, first generation and minority student perceptions of mentoring (Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College, 2004; Lopatto, 2003), concentrating more on noting differences between faculty and student perceptions of benefits. Using data compiled from oral interviews of thirty-three participants in the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program at Truman State University, this study has two purposes. First, in contrast to most of the literature that examines the mentoring relationship in collaborative undergraduate research, this study explicitly examines the perceptions of mentoring and research held by first generation college students and African American students at a primarily white/Caucasian institution. Second, the lessons learned from this inquiry may serve to better guide research programs in the process of mentor-student pairing that specifically target first generation college and other students from groups underrepresented in higher education. Literature on Student Perceptions of Mentoring in Undergraduate Research As a basic framework for this project, I borrow from the work of David Lopatto (2003). Lopatto was primarily motivated by the desire to learn what features both students and faculty believe are essential to the undergraduate research experience and to determine if there are shared perspectives. The study involved 41 faculty participants and 249 students who had participated in a collaborative undergraduate research experience at four primarily liberal arts undergraduate institutions. In examining the responses provide by both faculty and students, Lopatto differentiated between two sorts of responses, those that related to what he called structure items, and those that were consideration items (Muchinsky, 1990; Baba and Ace, 1989). Structure items refer to those features "of the undergraduate research that contribute to the structure of the research problem or processes." These items may include issues regarding facilities and equipment, assignment of tasks, scheduling, assistance with literature searchers, aiding in integrating the student into the profession, and a range of other academically oriented activities. On the other hand consideration items refer to "those features of mentor behavior that contribute to the emotional and social needs of the student (Lopatto, 2003 p. 14) This includes consideration by the mentor by being available for consultations, acting helpful and concerned and open to the students' views. These items also included being receptive to the personal concerns of the student and developing a continual personal relationship. Lopatto investigated student responses (n=249), most of whom were in the natural sciences, the physical sciences, and a few in psychology. …