Women mentoring minority women in universities: Retention strategies for female minority students.

Abstract

These purposely selected women (informally) mentored minority women in two different universities in one state. The broad research question was: (1) How do university female faculty perceive the mentoring process (if available), designed especially for the retention of undergraduate/graduate female students of color. The participants believed that mentoring was a good thing. They believed their contributions as mentors not only increased the quantity of teachers, but also, their mentoring was key for the purposes of recruiting and retaining qualified and diverse candidates through to graduation to return to the work force. Miller (1994) stated that changing demographics will have a greater immediate impact upon the nation's educational institutions than any other sector of American society. The need to increase the diversity in the work force is an issue teacher preparation institutions have been dealing with since the 1970s. Through phenomenology, this dissertation research examined how and why mentoring practices occurs in regard to minority women, in undergraduate and graduate programs.