The ASHE Higher Education Report Series is sponsored by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), which provides an editorial advisory board of ASHE members.

Amy Bergerson

University of Utah

Bryan Brayboy

Arizona State University

Ryan Gildersleeve

University of Denver

Michael Harris

Southern Methodist University

Elizabeth Jones

Holy Family University

Adrianna Kezar

University of Southern California

Kevin Kinser

SUNY – Albany

Peter Magolda

Miami University of Ohio

Dina C. Maramba

SUNY – Binghamton

Susan Marine

Merrimack College

Christopher Morphew

University of Iowa

Robert Palmer

SUNY – Binghamton

Michael Paulsen

University of Iowa

Todd Ream

Taylor University

Barbara Tobolowsky

University of Texas at Arlington

Carolyn Thompson

University of Missouri, Kansas City

Diane Wright

Florida Atlantic University

PROVIDING COLLEGE STUDENTS with access to mentoring has become a national priority, as evidenced by the prevalence and diversity of formal and informal mentoring programs and practices at postsecondary institutions. Mentoring efforts can be effective in addressing key issues and problems currently facing colleges and universities across the country, including the need to increase degree completion rates, reduce inequities in outcomes for marginalized and underrepresented groups, and broaden participation in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline and workforce. Mentoring has long been considered a developmental and retention strategy for undergraduate students, and research suggests mentoring efforts are positively related to a variety of developmental and academic outcomes.

Unfortunately, mentoring research has been repeatedly observed by scholars to be underdeveloped relative to the importance and growing number of mentoring programs supported at the national, state, and local levels. Robust research is needed to guide the development, implementation, and assessment of undergraduate mentoring efforts. As the number of studies focused on mentoring undergraduate students continues to grow, comprehensive reviews of the literature are necessary to synthesize new knowledge. Literature reviews provide an efficient and robust way for practitioners and researchers to make sense of a large body of literature and to identify evidence-based practices specific to designing, implementing, and evaluating mentoring programs.

The most recent comprehensive review of the mentoring literature was conducted by Crisp and Cruz (2009), who provided a critical synthesis of empirical research conducted between 1990 and 2007. Although findings pointed to the overall effectiveness of mentoring as a means to develop undergraduate students and support their academic success, the review also identified persistent conceptual, methodological, and theoretical weaknesses that impede the usefulness of findings in guiding the development of mentoring practice. Fortunately, the mentoring literature appears to have evolved substantially over the past decade, with over 100 studies published on mentoring undergraduate students since the last systematic review. However, it is unclear if or how the previously discussed limitations have been addressed by mentoring scholars or to what degree knowledge has developed in recent years. Renewed consideration of knowledge, and remaining unanswered questions, about mentoring undergraduate students is thus warranted.

The overarching purpose of this monograph is to move the mentoring conversation forward by offering an updated synthesis of the undergraduate mentoring scholarship published between 2008 and 2015. We sought to address four specific questions. First, we wanted to identify and understand how empirical knowledge and theory have advanced since the last comprehensive review. Importantly, we find that recent scholarship provides a more complex understanding of how mentoring can promote social justice and equity in higher education by providing more focus to student groups that have been historically understudied and underserved in higher education. We also find that the reviewed research has provided more attention to theory, as well as practical matters such as what mentoring looks like and how it is perceived and experienced by undergraduate students. Further, our review synthesizes current understanding of mentor matching processes and activities that mentors engage in with students, which are expected to be of use in guiding the development and implementation of mentoring programs.

At the same time, findings highlight enduring conceptual, theoretical, and methodological limitations of the usefulness of research in guiding mentoring practice. One such limitation is ambiguity in how mentoring has been defined and conceptualized across studies. In response, a second goal of the monograph was to identify and provide clarity about the characteristics that serve to meaningfully distinguish mentoring relationships and programmatic efforts. Consistent with prior reviews, no one definition was found to accurately represent the diversity of relationships that students and institutional agents may term “mentoring.” Rather, findings suggest that definitions of mentoring might be improved by describing the characteristics that distinguish mentoring relationships and programs. In particular, we suggest that undergraduate mentoring relationships may be differentiated by the following characteristics: (a) relationship features, (b) form or source of the relationship, (c) relationship structure, (d) program types, and (e) forms of mentoring support provided to the student. In terms of formal programmatic efforts, this monograph details four distinct, and yet in some ways overlapping, types of mentoring programs. These include orientation and university retention programs, mentoring for social justice and equity, peer mentoring, and undergraduate research and honors programs.

Another enduring limitation of the mentoring literature is the underdevelopment and relative absence of theory available to guide the administration of mentoring programs. Although there are a fair number of theories that aim to identify and define the components of mentoring relationships, scholarship that sheds light on how mentoring is related to student development, learning, and success was shown to be particularly limited. Those applying theoretical or conceptual frameworks often develop models specific to their individual research, borrowed from or based on frameworks designed to explain relationships in business. Theoretical models that continue to interrogate how identity can shape how mentoring is defined, how individuals engage one another, and the needs of protégés are important for advancing mentoring research and practice.

As such, the third goal in developing this monograph was to integrate theory and research in a way that could provide tentative hypotheses regarding the relationship between the various characteristics and outcomes of mentoring. We draw upon reviewed theory and empirical findings to offer an integrated conceptual framework that identifies connections between developmental relationships, students’ characteristics, educational contexts, relationship features such as intent and intensity, forms of support, and potential short- and long-term effects on students’ college experiences and outcomes. Among other things, our framework acknowledges the interconnectedness between students and their educational context. Students choose and influence their educational environments, and environments simultaneously act upon and shape students, driving their needs and resources. Additionally, our model offers testable ideas regarding how mentoring activities indirectly and directly can have an impact on intermediate and long-term student outcomes.

An important and yet often overlooked responsibility of scholars is to effectively bridge research and practice. With that in mind, our fourth and final goal in developing this monograph was to offer evidence-based practices for the administration of formal mentoring programs. Although there are a growing number of online resources to guide practitioners in developing undergraduate mentoring programs, we find that few are firmly grounded in theory and/or rigorous empirical evidence specific to undergraduate students. As such, our monograph concludes with a set of specific recommendations and evidence-based practices expected to be useful in designing, implementing, and evaluating mentoring efforts in undergraduate education.

MENTORING IS OFTEN looked to by faculty and administrators as a means to integrate and connect undergraduate students with the academic experience. Mentors play a clear role in student success. In Mentoring Undergraduate Students, authors Gloria Crisp, Vicki Baker, Kimberly Griffin, Laura Gail Lunsford, and Meghan Pifer do a great job of analyzing and synthesizing current literature related to all aspects of undergraduate mentoring from definition to theory to practice to informing ongoing research. The compendium of research reviewed provides practitioners and researchers with an evidence-based view of the influence of mentoring on the academic and social integration of undergraduate students.

Mentoring is one of those concepts in higher education that few disagree is a “good” thing for students and faculty. What is often missing, however, is how mentoring actually influences and shapes the student experience. Does mentoring help retention? How does mentoring contribute to learning and development? What types of mentoring programs assist students from diverse backgrounds? When it comes time to fund programs or start new projects or maintain programs after a grant, it is useful to have evidence of a particular practice to help address these and other questions. In this monograph, the authors provide information about different kinds of mentoring, examples of best practice, and evidence of impact of different kinds of mentoring.

The monograph is sure to be of interest to those who study mentoring and other aspects of student success. In addition, the monograph is a great tool for those who work with undergraduate students to initiate and maintain mentoring programs. Those involved in assessment of student learning and outcomes will also find the monograph a valuable resource because it provides a framework to show how mentoring influences the student experience and student learning and development outcomes.

The contents of the monograph are comprehensive and go beyond description. The authors provide an analysis of the literature and include discussion of the role that mentoring can play in integrating students from historically underrepresented groups in higher education and also address the role that mentoring can play in advancing social justice and equity agendas. Many faculty and student affairs practitioners in higher education know of the merits of mentoring for supporting students from underrepresented minority groups in higher education, and the authors of the monograph review related literature and highlight programs that can provide ideas for transferable practice.

The treatment of the topic of mentoring in the monograph is helpful as well given the focus on the administration of mentoring programs. The authors address literature about how to develop and implement programs and the nuances of making mentor matches. Further, the authors address the importance of context and how mentoring programs are shaped by different types of missions for programs (e.g., for athletes, honors programs, first-generation students). Not all mentoring programs or approaches are the same. Different contexts call for different approaches and the authors address and include literature related to such distinctions.

Readers will find this monograph a helpful tool to understand the nuances of different types of mentoring programs (e.g., peer mentoring), theoretical and conceptual models related to mentoring, and further thinking about who is doing the mentoring and who is mentored. Further, those who study concepts related to mentoring will find this monograph an incredibly helpful tool to help frame and conceptualize future research. In my own reading of this monograph, it was great to have a review of concepts related to mentoring that are often taken for granted in both research and practice. I applaud the authors for providing a solid literature base to inform ongoing research and practice. I learned from reading this monograph and I hope you, as a reader, will as well.

Kelly Ward

Series Editor