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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ed.D.
Department
Educational Leadership and Policy
First Advisor
Carolyn Shields
Abstract
America’s higher education system was not created with consideration to supporting Black students. Now, centuries later, the majority of Black students choose to attend predominantly White institutions (PWIs) and enroll at comparable rates to their White peers. However, Black students do not graduate at the same rate as White students, with only 40% completing their degree within six years compared to 64% of White students completing their degree in the same timespan (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Black students continue to report PWI campuses as being hostile, toxic environments that can negatively impact their psychological well-being and learning experiences (Harvey, Harvey, & King, 2004; Beasley, Chapman-Hilliard, & McClain, 2016; Cabrera, Watson, & Franklin, 2016; Means & Pyne, 2017). Many PWIs have worked to implement diversity initiatives focused on supporting underrepresented minority populations, including Black students (Patton, Sanchez, Mac, & Stewart, 2019). However, many institutions fail to identify the specific, unique issues faced by Black students before implementing these programs (Brooks, Jones, & Burt, 2013), which has led to achieving minimal progress and change (Newkirk, 2019).Higher education institutions have increasingly implemented mentorship programs as the leading initiative to positively impact the experiences of Black students attending PWIs (Johnson, 2013). However, many mentorship programs do not consider the impact of racial matching when establishing the mentee-mentor pairings, which has been shown to influence personal and academic success metrics for Black students. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of Black students who are supported by a Black mentor while attending a predominantly White institution, including the impact made to the students’ mentorship experience when the mentor and mentee have the same racial identity. This research was conducted as a phenomenological study, collecting individual interviews from 12 participants. All participants are Black and are/were students at a 4-year PWI in the Midwest. They were all members of a learning community that paired them with a Black mentor to support them during their attendance at the institution. The findings of this study show that pairing a Black student with a Black mentor can yield a positive experience on the student’s experience at a PWI and can also positively impact personal and academic success metrics for the students.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Lynita M., "Understanding The Experiences Of Black Students Supported By A Black Mentor While Attending A Predominantly White Institution" (2023). Wayne State University Dissertations. 3895.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/3895