Recently I had the opportunity to think about mentoring in the context of a semester study abroad program with undergraduate research (UR) mentors working with DIS, Study Abroad in Scandinavia. Before talking with the mentors, I had asked their students to conceptualize their relationships within a mentoring constellation model, thinking about their study abroad experiences as well as relationships on their home campus. Mentoring constellation models in global contexts encompass peers, staff, and community members, among others, in addition to a primary research mentor (Allocco et al. 2023). Many of the DIS students reported they had mentoring and meaningful relationships in their home communities and in the host communities of their study abroad programs. The conversations with the mentors and students reminded me of the importance of considering relationships in context and the critical role of the environment in forming and sustaining mentoring relationships.

When students study abroad, they are living and studying in an environment with social and cultural norms that may differ significantly from their experiences and expectations. The mentoring relationships offer opportunities for mentoring beyond the research projects themselves to include personal and cultural support for navigating daily interactions in the host community. Having a mentoring constellation in mentored undergraduate research in global contexts (MUR-GC) has the potential to enhance intercultural learning, deep and mutual respect and understanding, and cultural humility, among other benefits to all involved in the constellations (Whitehead et al. 2024).

From national surveys and interviews described in the recent AAC&U report, we learned that many U.S. faculty mentors who develop MUR-GC opportunities are challenged by a lack of institutional supports and structures (Whitehead et al. 2024). At DIS, UR experiences are incorporated into the curriculum and the projects range across disciplines, such as environmental science, gender studies, human rights, humanities, premedicine/health, public health, and sustainability (see Hall et al., 2018 for more information about the development of this model). Faculty mentors are supported through dedicated resources and professional development opportunities, including mentoring workshops like the ones I conducted in Copenhagen and Stockholm in spring 2024.

In these workshops, I shared three primary mentoring approaches, including instrumental (building professional skills and competencies), psychosocial (offering personal and emotional supports), and relational (fostering reciprocity and mutuality), and acknowledged that while some mentors identify strongly with a singular approach, many adopt a blended approach in practice (Vandermaas-Peeler et al. 2015). When I asked the DIS mentors to describe their own approaches to mentoring relationships with their students, they wholeheartedly embraced relational mentoring as fitting their context. Students and faculty are generally on a first-name basis, which signals an informality and mutuality that can enhance the relationship quality and level some of the power dynamics. However, mentors also noted that this informality can be misleading and cause some students to assume, erroneously, that the mentor has lower performance expectations.

Setting clear expectations early in the relationship is one of ten salient mentoring practices identified by Shanahan et al. (2015) as critical for effective undergraduate research mentoring. As one DIS mentor explained, they face the challenge of “establishing a shared understanding of the expectations and then delivering emotional support. It’s hard to know when to push and when to pull.” Another salient practice mentioned as a challenge was supporting students’ professional development during the narrow window of time they spend together. One mentor commented:

Support[ing] students’ professional development through networking and explaining norms of the discipline [is a challenge]. A semester abroad is such a short time to be working with students and we don’t always get a chance to zoom out to the bigger picture of their future plans.

Study abroad mentors also face the challenge of students arriving with vastly different levels of preparedness for the UR experience, given that they come from diverse backgrounds, universities and colleges, majors, and so forth. The faculty mentors in my workshop aired their frustrations with some students overselling their own knowledge or skills in the lead-up to the UR experience, such as claiming expertise with a statistical analysis package. Upon their arrival, mentors were dismayed to learn that, in fact, some students were under-prepared to take on key responsibilities. In our workshop, this led to candid conversations about cultural differences in self-representation, but also about fear of failure on the part of some students amidst societal and institutional cultures focused almost exclusively on celebrating successes. Relational mentoring approaches can facilitate candid conversations between students and mentors early in the relationship to avoid misunderstandings and misaligned expectations that can hamper the work and the relationships later in the semester.

Although MUR-GC can pose significant challenges related to time, preparedness, communication, and expectation management, it also underscores the unique opportunities for developing cultural humility and intercultural learning in addition to research expertise. As noted by a mentor at DIS:

I get a chance to learn more about what students need, and I also sometimes have moments where a student and I can see that despite our differences, we can find similarities in the types of problems we’re confronted with.

References

Allocco, Amy L., Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Eric Hall, Caroline Ketcham, Mussa Idris, Jennifer A. Hamel, and David J. Marshall. 2022. “Undergraduate Research in the Global Context: Models and Practices for High-Quality Mentoring.” Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 30 (1): 106-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2022.2031084

Hall, Eric E., Helen Walkington, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Jenny O. Shanahan, Rikke K. Gudiksen, and Margaret M. Zimmer. 2018. “Enhancing Short-term Undergraduate Research Experiences in Study Abroad: Curriculum Design and Mentor Development.” PURM: Perspectives on Undergraduate Research & Mentoring 7, no. 1. https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/923/2019/06/Hall_Walkington_VandermaasPeeler_Shanahan_Gudiksen_Zimmer_main.pdf

Shanahan, Jenny Olin, Elizabeth Ackley-Holbrook, Eric Hall, Kearsley Stewart, and Helen Walkington. 2015. “Ten Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors: A Review of the Literature.” Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 23 (5): 359-76.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2015.1126162.

Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen, Paul Miller, and Tim Peeples. 2015. “Mentoring is sharing the process of discovery: Faculty perceptions of undergraduate research mentoring.”  Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 23 (5): 377-93 https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2015.1126163

Whitehead, Dawn M., Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Susan B. Sutton, Mary F. Price, Kate Patch and Kris Acheson. 2024. Mentored Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts. Integrating High-impact Practices for Student Success. American Association of Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/publication/mentored-undergraduate-research-in-global-contexts-integrated-high-impact-practices-for-student-success

About the Author

Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler is a Professor of Psychology and founding Director of Elon’s Center for Research on Global Engagement at Elon University.

Learn more about the authors and the Mentoring Matters project.

How to Cite this Post

Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen. 2024, November 12. “Conceptualizing Mentoring Constellations in Study Abroad: Mentors’ Perspectives.” In Mentoring Matters: Supporting Students’ Development of Mentoring Constellations in Higher Education, edited by Jessie L. Moore, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, and Tim Peeples. Elon University Center for Engaged Learning. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/conceptualizing-mentoring-constellations-in-study-abroad-mentors-perspectives/