Culturally Responsive Practices in a Science Mentoring Program Serving Racially Minoritized Youth

Although mentoring programs have been utilized to increase access to STEM in underrepresented communities, there is limited research on the culturally responsive mentoring practices that are needed in high-quality STEM mentoring programs for youth. Grounded in culturally responsive pedagogy and youth mentoring literature on cultural humility, this study examined the culturally responsive mentoring practices of scientist-mentors who work with racially minoritized adolescent mentees from low-income urban communities. Retrospective self-report surveys were administered to 142 scientist-mentor alumni followed by in-depth qualitative interviews of a subset of 35 scientist-mentor alumni. Data analysis revealed three culturally responsive practices that scientist-mentors utilized in their interactions with youth: (a) social-emotional support, (b) role modeling, and (c) youth-oriented science communication. Serving as mentors to youth in the community and spending time with them shifted the mentors’ mindsets. Specifically, mentors showed an increased (a) awareness of inequities in education and (b) commitment to continue engaging with communities. Implications for future research and mentoring program practice are discussed.