CRITICAL MENTORING
Review by Laureen Summers, AAAS Entry Point! Project Director
Young people have a lot of say and a lot to teach the adults around them. They deserve to have their voices heard.
Mentoring programs often assume there is a deficit in the mentee that needs to be addressed. Mentors often are trained to work with a young person (the mentee) on improving one’s grades; knowing how to properly communicate with others; searching for appropriate employment; and adopting mainstream cultural values and behaviors in order to function as respected members of society. Listening and encouraging a young person to explore their individual histories and identities is not always a part of the process.
In her book, Critical Mentoring A Practical Guide, Torie Weiston-Serdan, PhD, makes a compelling case for youth to be collaborating partners in the planning and implementation of mentoring programs. Rather than assume that youth are lacking in having complex thoughts or making good judgments, it is important to recognize that many youth are keenly aware and smart about the ways in which issues of race, culture, gender, disability and class have affected the academic and social behaviors in their lives. In addition to traditional mentoring components, mentees deserve to drive research and conversations about their struggles to understand and succeed in a world that is not always welcoming.
Weiston-Serdan argues that when young people are directly involved in opportunities to inform agendas, both mentor and mentee build richer relationships as they explore seldom talked-about issues. It is also useful when the mentor and mentee have similar backgrounds and experiences, thus providing the young person with a safe and non-threatening environment in which to examine the effects of marginalization on their own beliefs and identities, as well as having a role model who has persevered, despite many obstacles.
“When mentoring and youth development professionals undergo training they need to hear about ethical issues, effective elements of mentoring and also how to leverage the human connection to help youth see themselves in relationship to discriminatory structures. We have to find folks willing to do this work, and we have to link them to thriving mentoring communities.” — (from: Critical Mentoring, p 63)
This article has been reprinted with the permission of the author. The article is copyrighted by the Science Books and Films (SB&F) / American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Editor’s Note: Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide “reimagines mentoring” by focusing on root causes analysis. The National Disability Mentoring Coalition hosted Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan in June 2017 for a national webinar. The captioned presentation on YouTube:
The National Disability Mentoring Coalition also participated in a Critical Mentoring workshop at the National Mentoring Summit organized by MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership. The workshop participants are in the photograph below. Here is a great blog post summarizing the Summit from Summer Search.
You can order Critical Mentoring here.
About the Author: Laureen Summers is Project Director for Entry Point!, a mentoring program for rising biomedical scholars and researchers with disabilities. Entry Point! is part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
About the National Disability Mentoring Coalition: The mission of the National Disability Mentoring Coalition (NDMC) is to increase the awareness, quality and impact of mentoring for individuals with disabilities across the nation. Member organizations share core values and align with the Coalition’s objectives to streamline communication, standardize and systematize data collection, reduce duplication of efforts, increase mentoring opportunities, and improve outcomes for youth and adults with disabilities. Learn more about the NDMC, review its Membership, and visit the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame at www.disabilitymentors.org. You can also follow NDMC on Twitter or email us at dshields@forwardworks.net.
This #DisabilityMentors publication is a space for individuals to share stories and testimonials to elevate the importance of establishing a national disability mentoring policy and increase funding to enable more mentors to raise expectations, build confidence and positively impact youth and adults with disabilities.
