Review of Mentoring Manuals in STEM to Improve the Mentorship Experience for Underrepresented Minority Students Through the Lens of Social Capital and Combating Social Reproduction

There is a lack of diversity and inclusion in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Students who pursue a degree in STEM, only less than half of them complete them. However, this phenomenon occurs at a greater percentage for underrepresented minority students (UMS). To combat the lack of representation in STEM, mentoring has been suggested to promote retention and minimize attrition. Mentoring provide plenty of benefits for students, as they can gain academic and professional experience. Unfortunately, mentorship of UMS is not the same compared to Asian and white students, thus different approaches and recommendations must be implemented to fit their needs. This study focused on examining and analyzing mentoring manuals in STEM disciplines. The purpose of the study was to find suggestions directed toward underrepresented minority (URM) mentee and faculty. Five mentoring handbooks were review and assessed through the seven recommendations mentioned in The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (Byars-Winston & Dahlberg, 2019). Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction was the framework selected for the analysis to connect the link between UMS and their acquisition of social capital. Many of the manuals aligned with the seven recommendations, with each containing similar themes and objectives. There were lack of information regarding diversity and identity, providing limited resources directed toward URM mentees. Improvements in the structure and content can be made in future mentoring manuals for them to be more inclusive. Recommendations for underrepresented minority mentees, faculty mentors, and future mentoring manual writers were made