Using critical race theory to reframe mentor training: theoretical considerations regarding the ecological systems of me
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Using critical race theory to reframe mentor training: theoretical considerations regarding the ecological systems of mentorship Jose H. Vargas 1
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& Carrie L. Saetermoe & Gabriela Chavira
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# The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
This article offers a theoretical and critical analysis of race-dysconscious mentorship involving students of color and white faculty. Inspired by ecological systems theory, critical race theory, and the NIH-funded program, Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity: Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research, our analysis considers the ecosystems that promote student pushout and hinder diversification of the scientific workforce, which call for “critical” alternatives to traditional research mentorship. We first examine the historical, social–political, institutional, interpersonal, and intrapsychic ecosystems of traditional mentor–protégé relationships. Two areas are reviewed: (a) “diversity” as it operates in universities and research laboratories and (b) the discursive properties of a dysconscious dialog that rationalizes modern racism. Next, we connect the five ecosystems of mentorship by integrating literature on critical history, white consciousness, the interpersonal context of mentoring, and mentor–protégé phenomenology. Our analysis demonstrates how the racialized lives of members involved in a mentoring relationship are situated within racist macro-level ecological systems wherein intrapsychic and interpersonal actions and discourses unfold. The development of raceconsciousness and anti-racist faculty mentor training programs is also discussed. Keywords Critical race theory . Ecological systems/ecosystems . Mentorship . Pushout problem . Race/racism . Students of color
* Jose H. Vargas [email protected] Carrie L. Saetermoe [email protected] Gabriela Chavira [email protected]
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California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA, USA
Higher Education
The problem with individualism is…attributing to individuality the things produced only in the dialectic of interpersonal relations. Through this, individualism ends up reinforcing the existing structures, because it ignores the reality of social structures and reduces all structural problems to personal problems. —Ignacio Martín-Baró 1994, p. 22 Structural racism limits higher education and every branch of the social and natural sciences. The Centers for Disease Control defines racism as “a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on phenotype (race) that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities; unfairly advantages other individuals and communities; [and] undermines…the full potential of…society” (Jones 2002, p. 10). Inside the academic-scientific community, a dearth of diversity (i.e., ideas from various identity groups; Thomas and Ely 1996) constrains imagination and critical problemsolving by essentializing, or making natural and immutable, culturally biased ecosystems that define merit in Western-individualist terms (Kosoko-Lasaki et al. 2006).
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