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Cross-Cultural Mentoring: An Examination of the Perspectives of Mentors

Crutcher, Betty Neal
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1151683574

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
Researchers and practitioners involved in adult-youth mentoring programs have long believed that matching mentors with mentees who share similar cultural backgrounds is beneficial because the mentor can understand the social and psychological conflicts that the mentee might face and thus can teach the youth how to cope effectively. This dissertation examines the perspectives of mentors who have worked for at least one year with protégés who come from different genders, races, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, religions and sexual orientations from their own. Chapter one offers a brief history of mentoring in the United States and reviews the professional literature on mentoring in general and cross-cultural mentoring in particular. The second chapter explores some of the relevant educational theories and suggests cross-cultural mentoring as a possible solution to the lack of a democratic access to education in the United States today. Chapter three outlines the qualitative, interview-based methodology used to examine the perspectives of mentors. The second half of the dissertation reviews and analyzes the interview findings and compares those findings with the professional literature on mentoring. Chapter four focuses on the mentors’ general understandings of mentoring by analyzing their use of mentoring metaphors and their description of mentoring in comparison to other major relationships such as parenting, counseling or coaching. Chapter five reviews the key traits that mentors should possess as well as the major challenges that they face when working with mentees from different cultural backgrounds. Chapter six offers some of the promising practices mentors have used in overcoming the challenges articulated in chapter five, and it reveals some of the major benefits of cross-cultural mentoring. The final chapter provides suggestions for how mentoring programs can better select and train cross-cultural mentorships. In order to serve minority youth better, it seems imperative that we augment the numbers of mentors who come from both minority and majority cultural backgrounds and who can effectively build mentoring relationships with minority youth. This dissertation represents one of the only attempts to examine the experiences of mentors who have successfully mentored individuals across cultural divides, such as race, ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status.
Raymond Terrell (Advisor)
152 p.
Mentoring; Cross-cultural mentoring

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Crutcher, B. N. (2006). Cross-Cultural Mentoring: An Examination of the Perspectives of Mentors [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1151683574

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Crutcher, Betty. Cross-Cultural Mentoring: An Examination of the Perspectives of Mentors. 2006. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1151683574.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Crutcher, Betty. "Cross-Cultural Mentoring: An Examination of the Perspectives of Mentors." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1151683574

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1151683574
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© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.