“We can change the culture through those individual engagements”: social exchange and equity-mindedness in STEMM doctoral students’ roles as mentors

Purpose This study examines how doctoral students serving as mentors in scientific disciplines navigated their roles as “stage-ahead” mentors to undergraduate student(s), who were one academic “stage” behind them. Specifically, the authors explore how stage-ahead mentors conceptualized their mentoring motivations and the benefits and challenges of being a mentor through a lens of social exchange and equity-minded mentoring. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of ten doctoral students in computing-related fields, the authors used narrative inquiry with a critical constructivist paradigm. Within this narrative inquiry, the authors used data from education journey maps – a visual critical qualitative method – as well as semi-structured interviews. The authors followed a multiphase analytic process that blended deductive and inductive strategies. Findings Findings illustrate how stage-ahead mentors grappled with perceived motivations, gains, and drawbacks to engaging in graduate–undergraduate mentorship, as a form of social exchange, and highlight how interactions were shaped by (in)equity and power in doctoral education. Specifically, stage-ahead mentors often reflected on how identity-based experiences and unclear roles/boundaries in doctoral education shaped their perceptions of mentoring motivations, benefits, and challenges. Originality/value Existing literature on doctoral student mentorship frequently positions doctoral students as recipients of, rather than providers of, mentorship. It is essential to shift this existing lens to one that explores how doctoral students serve as mentors to undergraduates in their scientific field. Doctoral education has a duty to not only prepare students as scholars but also as mentors who can train the next generation of students.