“The Village Mentality”: Black Faculty Kinship Mentoring Approaches That Affirm Black Students During COVID-19 and Beyond

Black faculty play a unique and significant role in Black students’ experiences at historically white universities (HWIs). The shared experience of marginalization and isolation facilitates Black faculty’s commitment to supporting Black students inside and outside the classroom. When the global COVID-19 pandemic created major disruptions in higher education, faculty were expected to respond to students’ increased needs while also responding to their own professional and personal demands. Guided by a BlackCrit framework, the authors explore Black faculty mentoring relationships with Black students and COVID-19′s effect on Black faculty mentoring approaches. Our study provides insight into Black faculty mentoring approaches before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified three salient themes: (a) Black faculty feel a sense of responsibility to support Black students; (b) Black faculty describe their approaches to mentorship as humanizing and loving; and (c) Black faculty support Black students in navigating the academy and developing scholarly identities. Participant narratives reflect a unique mentorship approach that we label as kinship mentoring.