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Underrepresented minority (URM) students have not been well represented within the ranks of doctoral degree holders or faculty in STEM disciplines despite the increased attention in recent years to this concern. URM students lag considerably behind White and Asian students in degree completion and faculty appointments. One intervention widely touted as effective in promoting positive outcomes is mentoring however URM students often lack access to mentoring and just as importantly mentors lack culturally responsive knowledge, skills and dispositions required to be effective mentors to URM students. A qualitative study was conducted to better understand how the knowledge, skills and dispositions of STEM faculty align with culturally responsive mentoring. Three themes were constructed from the data: role ambiguity, preparedness, and culture of doing. The study concluded that faculty need more and better training around cultural responsiveness to meet the needs of URM students. 

The purpose of this work in progress paper is to understand the influence of mentoring on the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM doctoral student experience. This qualitative case study sought to determine the impact of how mentoring relationships between faculty doctoral mentors and STEM doctoral students. This research emphasizes the role of mentoring as part of an intervening strategy for doctoral retention and suggest culturally responsive mentoring as a means to improve the experiences of PhD underrepresented minority (URM) students. This study addresses a gap in the literature related to culturally responsive mentoring and the STEM disciplines. The findings were developed from four focus group interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and coded by the research team. Data were analyzed using constant comparative methods as an iterative process to extrapolate key words and identify significant patters [1]. This study uses critical inquiry as a theoretical framework. Our findings revealed that mentoring takes place within a complex environment framed by systems of inequity grounded in race and gender. Three themes were constructed from the data: mentoring as a biased environment, lack of responsiveness to student needs, and relational tensions. This briefly examines one themes: mentoring as a biased environment. The data highlight how the past experiences of faculty contribute to their bias standpoints. Bias may be based on race, gender, or age, and may be implicit or explicit. Within this environment doctoral students are challenged to navigate the spaces such as the classroom and laboratory that can be wrought with the difficulties springing from gender and race. This paper is relevant to mentoring and STEM as it acknowledges that mentoring is a heavily nuanced practice with important cultural implications relative to PhD STEM students and faculty. 

Mentoring is crucial for academic success in higher education, especially for women and minority students in STEM doctoral programs. The purpose of this paper was to examine mentoring relationships involving diverse doctoral students studying in the STEM programs at the university in the southeastern part of the United States. Data collection methods included focus groups with twenty-five students and individual interviews with nine underrepresented minority students studying at various STEM programs. Data was analyzed using an inductive process. The findings reveal a few missing pieces to effective mentoring that are connected with feelings of lack of personal, social, and cultural inclusion in mentoring relationships. These findings call for transformation of mentoring in graduate STEM education.