1. Abigail J. Stewart University of Michigan May 27, 2018
Mentoring Underrepresented Students in STEM: Insights from Social Psychology
Abigail J. Stewart
University of Michigan
May 27, 2018

2. Illustrations
Eileen Pollack (2015), The only woman in the room; Why physics is still a boys’ club. Boston, Beacon Press,

3. Why particularly focus on mentoring underrepresented students in STEM?
Most of what I will talk about applies to mentoring those who are well-represented in STEM too; you’ll easily see how.
It is in fact trickier to mentor those who are underrepresented—in this case women and racial-ethnic minorities.
Why is it trickier? Because both you and they:
are well aware they are underrepresented
believe talent leads to success
wonder if under- representation is justified.

4. Consequences of underrepresentation
“In physics, no matter what honor I received, I could hear Miki’s voice assure me the honor had come only because I was female.” (Pollack, p.133)
So both of you are at risk of believing that current representation is reasonable and their success unlikely (‘naturalization of the status quo’)
Her “stereotype threat” is your ”implicit bias” or “just world.”
Banaji & Greenwald, 2013; Lerner, 1980;
Steele, 2010

5. Successful mentoring addresses mentee’s background concerns indirectly
The mentee’s expectations:
I don’t belong
I’m not good at this
People like me can’t do this
You aren’t like me
You can’t help me/you won’t help me
Some people from groups well –
represented in math have thsese
same concerns, but not as many.
Cheryan, Plaut, Davies, & Steele; Good, Rattan, & Dweck, 2012; Walton & Cohen, 2011

6. The DRP approach makes it easy to address the mentee’s concerns
Provides students access to an interpersonal relationship with a ”role model” in an area where they are trying out a “possible self”
-–someone who loves and studies mathematics
--someone who can make it feel more “possible”
--because of surface-level similarity (shared identities like gender, race-ethnicity)
--because of deep-level similarity
--but more difficult if you seem impossibly skilled
Carrell, Page, & West, 2009; Cheryan, Drury, & Vichayapai, 2013; Harrison et al., 1998; Markus, 1986;
Sue & Sue, 2003; Ortiz-Walters& Gilson, 2005; Turban et al, 2002

7. Implications of surface-level differences for mentee’s sense of belonging
Surface-level differences will decrease “interpersonal comfort” for both of you, so take that seriously
Older
Know more mathematics
Better at mathematics
Different social identities (race-ethnicity, gender, other)