The Graduate Student Role in Undergraduate Research Mentoring: Theoretical Perspectives

This full research paper expands on ongoing work in undergraduate research mentoring focusing on the relationships and power dynamics of mentoring triads that include a faculty member, graduate student, and undergraduate researcher through narrative analysis of the literature. Background: Graduate students have an important role in undergraduate research. They act as the bridge mentor in a mentoring triad, working with their faculty member and the undergraduate researcher. This mentoring relationship is typically considered either an open triad, where the PI does not engage with the undergraduate researcher, or a closed triad, where the undergraduate researcher has a mentoring relationship with both the graduate student and the PI. There is little literature related to the particular needs of graduate students in such relationships; a recent systematic review found only ten journal articles that focus on graduate students and explicitly use the term “mentor* triad”. Broadening the search found additional literature related to graduate students in undergraduate research mentoring triads, though only 63 articles in total. In working with graduate students and faculty to facilitate professional development workshops on undergraduate research mentoring, there seems to be some aspects missing in existing mentoring relationship models that are not clearly in the mentoring literature. Defining the graduate student's role, relationships to the faculty mentor and undergraduate mentee, and recognizing or developing appropriate boundaries are often confusing for graduate students. These areas require further inquiry to determine ways to better support graduate students in mentoring triads. Purpose: This study explores existing literature to understand the state of the literature related to graduate students' roles and relationships in undergraduate research triads. Methodology/Approach: This study presents an integrative literature review analyzing the triadic mentoring literature, building upon a previous systematic literature review conducted on this topic. Findings/Conclusions: Through a narrative and thematic analysis of this literature we gained a deeper understanding of what mentoring triads are and how they are enacted in research mentoring context. We explored the history and development of current triadic mentoring models and identified some potential areas for expansion of these existing models. Findings from this narrative analysis of the mentoring triad literature will be used to inform phase two of the study, an in-depth thematic analysis of interviews of research mentoring triads. Implications: This study explores the relationships that graduate students engage in when acting as mentors for undergraduate researchers. In our current work, interactions with faculty and graduate students suggest that the existing models do not fully encompass the relationships they experience. The findings from this study will inform recommendations for navigating triad mentoring relationships that include graduate students, faculty, and undergraduate students.