Abstract
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.
Plain Language Summary
The authors examined how Black faculty support and mentor Black students at historically white universities, especially before and during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Black faculty and Black students often share experiences of racial isolation, marginalization, and navigating unwelcoming campus climates. Because of these shared realities, Black faculty frequently express feelings of responsibility to guide, affirm, and advocate for Black students both inside and outside the classroom. When COVID‑19 disrupted higher education, these expectations intensified as students faced heightened academic, emotional, and personal challenges. At the same time, Black faculty were managing their own pandemic‑related pressures and the broader racial violence unfolding across the United States. Using a Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) framework, the authors explored how Black faculty understand their contributions to Black students’ success and how they approached mentoring before and during COVID‑19. Interviews with 31 Black tenure‑track faculty at research universities reveal three central themes. First, Black faculty feel a strong obligation to support Black students, often filling in where institutional support is lacking. Second, they describe their mentoring as humanizing, loving, and grounded in care, approaches that affirm students’ full identities and lived experiences. And third, Black faculty serve a crucial role in helping students navigate academic systems, understand hidden expectations, and develop confidence as emerging scholars. Across participants, mentoring extended beyond formal advising to include emotional support, cultural affirmation, and guidance through racialized challenges in higher education. The authors describe this distinctive approach as kinship mentoring, a culturally rooted, relational practice shaped by shared histories, community traditions, and a commitment to collective uplift. Kinship mentoring reflects the ways Black faculty create spaces of belonging and possibility for Black students, even amid institutional inequities and ongoing effects of the pandemic.
Introduction
Within higher education, mentorship helps students navigate college overall as well as navigate hostile campus climates. Consequently, mentorship has been linked to Black students’ academic achievement, persistence and retention (Sinanan, 2016). Notably, Black faculty have a unique and significant impact on Black students’ experience in higher education. Specifically, scholars assert that Black students perform better academically with Black faculty mentors because they “provide credibility, positive role models, and support in and out of class” (Moore & Toliver, 2010, p. 932). Building positive relationships is a key factor for producing positive outcomes for Students of Color especially at Historically white Institutions (HWI) where the institutional norms, values and practices cater to the majority white demographic. Black students are more likely to perceive race-related isolation and less likely to feel connected to their college campus, especially majority white campuses (Thelamour et al., 2019).
Black faculty may also experience isolation, marginalization, and a negative racial climate (Carter & Craig, 2022; Haynes et al., 2020). Having shared experiences with Black students allows Black faculty to connect in ways that white faculty cannot, thus putting them in a better position to affirm Black students’ identity and contribute to the academic success of Black students (Moore & Toliver, 2010). Not only do Black faculty serve as models of success, they are committed to supporting Black students and hold higher academic expectations compared to white faculty (Griffin, 2013). Despite evidence of the importance of mentorship, higher education institutions demonstrate disregard for mentoring when it is not factored into tenure decisions (Moore & Toliver, 2010). Regardless of institutional resistance to legitimate mentoring as visible labor, Black faculty continue to mentor, provide extra support, and respond to the needs of Black students (Griffin, 2013).
The COVID-19 global pandemic presented major disruptions in higher education for educators and students around the United States (U.S.; Lederer et al., 2021). In March, 2020, the government restricted in-person learning and campus activities, forcing all instruction and interactions to a virtual format. Scholars posit that the abrupt shift to online learning exacerbated existing inequalities for Students of Color (Molock & Parchem, 2022) and created new concerns for faculty, thus “widening individual and institutional equity gaps” (Gonzalez & Griffin, 2020, p. 2). More specifically, Black faculty in general and Black women in particular were expected to respond to students’ increased needs related to COVID-19 while also responding to their own professional and personal demands (Lane et al., 2023; Porter et al., 2022; Tevis, 2021). While the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 is no longer a national and public health emergency, we recognize the continuing effects of the global pandemic and lasting impact in higher education (Smith-Doerr et al., 2024). Our critical qualitative study was designed to understand COVID-19′s effect on Black faculty mentoring approaches. We engaged a framework grounded in BlackCrit to explore Black faculty approaches to mentorship in general, and their strategies to sustain connections during the wake of COVID-19. This study was guided by the following research questions:
How do Black faculty perceive their contributions to the educational experience and success of Black students?
How do Black faculty describe their approach to mentoring Black students before and during COVID-19?
In the sections below, we present the theoretical framework that guided our study and relevant literature on Black faculty experiences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conclude with a discussion of the findings from this study and institutional recommendations that address implications for Black faculty mentoring commitments.
Theoretical Framework
BlackCrit
Black Critical Theory, or BlackCrit, is a framework that stems from Critical Race Theory (CRT). While CRT has and can be used as a lens to examine racism in higher education (and elsewhere), BlackCrit supports a deeper and more specific exploration of Blackness, the Black experience, and antiblack racism. According to Dumas and Ross (2016), BlackCrit “confronts the specificity of antiblackness” (p. 416) and “highlights the significance of Blackness in our everyday lives” (p. 418). We take up the authors’ articulation of framing ideas for conceptualizing BlackCrit:
“Antiblackness is endemic to, and is central to how all of us make sense of the social, economic, historical, and cultural dimensions of human life” (p. 429).
BlackCrit is grounded in an acknowledgment of the prevalence and permanence of antiblackness. That is, antiblackness is rooted in a history and legacy of the dehumanization of Black people. Accordingly, BlackCrit offers a lens to address how policies and practices reproduce, reinforce, and normalize antiblackness.
2. “Blackness exists in tension with the neoliberal-multicultural imagination” (p. 430).
Neoliberal multicultural ideologies rests in the belief of a post-racial society, and therefore Black people are responsible for (and the cause of) their problems and progress. BlackCrit cautions the ideologies and practices that promote diversity and claim antiracism without actively addressing antiblack racism.
3. “BlackCrit should create space for Black liberatory fantasy, and resist a revisionist history that supports dangerous majoritarian stories that disappear Whites from a history of racial dominance, rape, mutilation, brutality, and murder” (p. 431).
Dominant Eurocentric ideologies attempt to erase the role of white people in the historical objectification and violence against Black people and the legacy of enslavement. BlackCrit can be a tool to disrupt dominant narratives and supports a reimagining of Black liberation and humanity. For this article, BlackCrit supports our aim to recognize the inequities embedded in education systems and to hold institutions accountable for the policies and practices that reinforce the historical marginalization and exclusion of Black people. Further, we aim to make space for personhood affirming practices demonstrated by Black faculty.
Review of Literature
Scholars posit that Black students who attend HWIs often experience a negative and hostile racial climate, and negative interactions with their peers and professors (Tichavakunda, 2020, 2022). Likewise, Black faculty may encounter a similar climate and experience marginalization, isolation, and alienation (Carter & Craig, 2022). This shared experience in education, and society at large, positions Black educators to uplift and guide Black students as they cope with shared struggles (Duncan, 2020; Mondisa & Main, 2021). In the sections below, we discuss Black faculty’s experience as mentors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Past and recent literature is highlighted to illustrate Black faculty’s commitment to mentoring Black students, historical and social factors influencing their kinship connection, and the increased expectations of Black faculty in mentoring.
Black Faculty as Mentors
Mentorship has been used as a strategy to retain Black students (Moore & Toliver, 2010). Further, Black students seek formal and informal mentorship from faculty with shared identity for social, emotional, academic, and professional support (Brooms & Davis, 2017; Grant & Ghee, 2015). Though Black faculty make up only 7% of full-time faculty in colleges and universities (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2024), they serve a significant role in producing positive outcomes for Black students (Moore & Toliver, 2010). Specifically, Black faculty can have “an advantage over white faculty members in contributing to the educational success of Black students” (p. 933). Connor (2022) proclaims that Students of Color are drawn to Black faculty for formal and informal mentorship. Accordingly, Black faculty may have a greater expectation to support Students of Color.
While all faculty are expected to balance research, service, and teaching responsibilities, Black faculty can have heavier service and invisible labor workloads than their white colleagues (Connor, 2022; Griffin & Reddick, 2011). More specifically, Black faculty connect with Black students through cultural affinity, and hold greater success-oriented expectations (Griffin, 2013). We reiterate that Black students uniquely benefit from the mentorship of Black faculty who recognize the race-related stressors and challenges that Black students face at HWIs (Griffin, 2013; Moore & Toliver, 2010).
One major factor influencing the commitment from Black faculty to mentor Black students is having a shared understanding of experiences (Griffin, 2013; Mondisa & Main, 2021; Moore & Toliver, 2010). Black faculty and Black students alike experience marginalization in education (Reddick, 2011). Further, if they acknowledge shared cultural identities, a unique bond can be created between Black faculty and Black students. Scholars have examined this distinctive connection between Black faculty and students. In Cook’s (2010) exploration of Black educators’ impact during urban school-reform post-Hurricane Katrina, the author asserted the significance of fictive-kinship relationships, noting several functions. Notably, fictive-kinship allowed Black educators to support students beyond their academic needs. Fictive kinship indicates a connection between people not related by birth who share a reciprocal relationship (Cook & Williams, 2015).
While we recognize the historical significance of fictive kinship relationships between Black people, especially during the enslavement era, we also believe that Black people’s articulation and elaboration of such relationships has and continues to evolve (Fordham, 1996). To be clear, “this evolution is not to be equated with its disappearance” (p. 77). Rather, we amplify the persistence and significance of the kinship connection between Black people. Accordingly, we align with scholars who view this dynamic as real and actual rather than fictive or imaginary. Specifically, we enter the conversation around Black faculty mentoring relationships with Black students acknowledging an intentional and kindred connection. We think alongside Muhammad and Tatum (2015) in our conceptualization of kinship mentoring. The authors discuss their perspective of their mentor/mentee relationship, specifically naming a scholarly kinship. They note that their complementary, collaborative, and mutually beneficial relationship shadows historical traditions of Black people. Further, they proclaim that kinship mentoring “is done unselfishly and promotes shared learning and responsibility for cultivating one another’s minds” (p. 17). We extend this proclamation to identify the humanizing and affirming aspects of the kinship connection between Black faculty and students beyond a scholarly relationship.
Increased Expectation for Black Faculty
The commitment to mentor students requires time and energy that can reduce Black faculty’s bandwidth for other expectations, namely research productivity, which is a major factor in promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions (Griffin et al., 2011). Nevertheless, Black faculty have a great desire to support Black students (Griffin & Reddick, 2011) and commit to supporting Black students inside and outside of the classroom (Moore & Toliver, 2010).
Scholars suggest that Black women carry greater mentoring loads than their colleagues (Boveda & McCray, 2020; Patton, 2009; Porcher & Austin, 2021). Griffin and Reddick (2011) explored the gender differences in mentoring experiences of Black faculty. The authors found that Black women professors were more likely to engage with their students in a “proximal, semifamilial manner” (p. 1045) whereas the Black men professors engaged in a “formal, compartmentalized manner” (p. 1048). The familial support provided by Black women was correlated with a greater and more demanding service load as they admitted to being attentive to students’ personal lives and struggles outside of the classroom. The authors’ intersectional analysis found that not only were Black women faculty more likely to mentor in a close and personal manner, there was also an expectation for such. Contrarily, the Black men faculty in the study more often discussed establishing boundaries with students; particularly taking caution with women students. These findings are consistent with participants in Reddick’s (2011) study on the contributions and challenges for Black faculty mentoring Black undergraduates.
We concur that the expectation for Black women to care and support students is connected to historical stereotypical depictions of Black women, like the mammy trope. Likewise, the fear of accusation expressed by Black men participants is influenced by historical stereotypes of Black men as dangerous and predatory. Nevertheless, consistent across Black faculty was an understanding of their value to Black students, and a desire to support them in order to “uplift the Black community” (p. 1044).
While Black faculty may feel a sense of satisfaction from mentoring Black students, they may also experience challenges. Griffin (2013) explored the costs and benefits for Black professors who mentor Black students. Participants who discussed challenges shared that mentoring Black students often required time and energy, especially for students who needed additional academic support. Some participants also believed that there was a lack of reciprocity where some of their Black students did not put in the desired effort, or expected special treatment or favoritism. Despite the challenges, Black faculty remained committed to supporting Black students and had a special desire to help them succeed.
Black Faculty Experience During COVID-19
In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global health pandemic. After more than 100,000 cases in over 100 countries, and over 4,000 deaths were reported, the presidential administration declared a nationwide emergency and issued travel bans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), n.d.). Soon after, state governments implemented shutdowns of “nonessential businesses” to reduce the spread of the virus. National health data revealed disparities in the impact of COVID-19 for Black, Indigenous, and more People of Color (BIPOC) communities (Ala et al., 2021). For example, a 2022 study reported higher rates of COVID-19 exposure and susceptibility to complications, higher risk of hospitalization, and higher proportion of COVID-19-related deaths for racially and ethnically minoritized groups, namely Black and Latinx communities (Robertson et al., 2022).
In addition to health-related concerns, educators and students across the world experienced new challenges and disruptions to their personal and professional lives (Gonzalez & Griffin, 2020). In response to government-implemented restrictions of in-person interactions, education institutions across the United States transitioned to virtual learning to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As educators shifted to online education, they also experienced changes to their home obligations as well as child and family care. Yet, faculty felt pressured to maintain research productivity while also providing support for their students’ pandemic-related needs (Boss et al., 2021). Some faculty even reported higher expectations for research productivity and an increased level of academic and emotional support for their students (Gonzalez & Griffin, 2020; Pettit, 2020).
Black faculty faced unique challenges related to the global pandemic. While dealing with the ramifications of COVID-19, Black faculty also experienced antiblackness and highly publicized violence against Black people (Layne et al., 2023; Pennant, 2022; Porter et al., 2022). Not only were Black faculty grappling with racial and social unrest, they were also supporting Black students who were navigating similar challenges. Scholars have also called attention to the unique experiences of Black women during the global pandemic, including the physical, mental, and emotional tolls (Hall & Bell, 2022; Lane et al., 2023; Petty & Ward, 2023). More pointedly, Black women were found to have increased labor expectations, magnified financial hardships, and a unique gendered experience of racial battle fatigue (Njoku & Evans, 2022; Porter et al., 2022, 2023). Collectively, these circumstances underscore distinct pressures shaping Black faculty members’ professional and personal lives during the pandemic, yet scholarship is scant about how they adapted mentoring practices. Understanding how Black faculty engaged in and experienced mentoring during COVID-19 is essential for developing more responsive and culturally sustaining approaches to support them.
In May of 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency, yet it remains an on-going global health threat (World Health Organization, 2023). Therefore, we deem it necessary to recognize the long-term impact of COVID-19 socially, emotionally, physically, and economically in Black faculty’s lives (Cotter et al., 2024; Smith-Doerr et al., 2024; Ward & Petty, 2025). Further, we acknowledge that existing inequities that were exacerbated during COVID-19 were not resolved by the federal declaration that the pandemic ended. We assert that education systems continue to function as anti-Black, patriarchal, heteronormative, capitalistic spaces. As COVID-19 continues to yield lasting consequences for Black communities, research must address the ongoing challenges Black faculty face in thriving within academia and the broader social injustices permeating education and society.
Research Design
Our critical qualitative study was designed to explore the mentoring approaches of Black faculty before and during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Critical qualitative research critiques systemic inequalities and aims to privilege the voices of historically marginalized populations (Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2022). We sought to answer the following research questions: 1. How do Black faculty perceive their contributions to the educational experience and success of Black students? and 2. How do Black faculty describe their approach to mentoring Black students before and during COVID-19? Further, we aimed to center the lived experiences and illuminate the voices of Black faculty at HWIs.
Participant Recruitment and Data Collection
As part of a larger study, we recruited participants via email based on the following criteria: 1. Must be a tenure-seeking assistant professor at a very high (R1) or high (R2) research activity university, as designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education; and 2. Self-identify as BIPOC. We engaged purposive sampling by directly emailing faculty who met the criteria. Our initial sampling focused on the education discipline because of an interest in our own field. We eventually expanded our recruitment to humanities and other disciplines to increase the number of BIPOC participants. Our recruitment was also expanded through referrals from participants. Thirty-five faculty agreed to participate in the study, 31 of whom were Black faculty (see Table 1). This project centered the individual and collective experiences of Black faculty participants. We specifically highlight Black faculty who described their experiences with Black students. We also collected participants’ self-identified gendered pronouns (18 used she/her, 12 used he/him, and 1 used they/them). Their time on the tenure-track ranged from 1 year to 8 years. Eight participants shared that they had previously been on the tenure track at other institutions. In addition to their racialized and gendered identities, faculty named more salient social identities, including queer, bi-sexual, gender fluid, mother, father, parent, spouse, partner, neurodivergent, and differently abled.
Participant Demographics.
Indicates a participant who has previously been on the tenure track at other institutions.
Between December 2020 and May 2021, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with participants who met the study criteria. Participants were interviewed once, and conversations ranged from 60 to 120 min. Conducting interviews allowed us to capture participant narratives and highlight perspectives of Black faculty mentoring experiences. All interviews were recorded and transcribed via Zoom. While we adhered to suggestions on how to conduct interviews using Zoom (Gray et al., 2020; Oliffe et al., 2021), we recognize that we may have missed opportunities to interpret emotions and nonverbal exchanges during the interviews. Yet, our findings are robust and informative and contribute to scholarship about Black faculty mentoring approaches before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
During interviews, participants were asked to share their approaches to teaching and mentoring Students of Color, and to describe challenges and opportunities they faced related to their teaching and mentoring during the wake of COVID-19. The second author, a Black woman who was tenure-seeking at the time of the study, conducted all the interviews because we believed participants might be more comfortable and open to sharing with a peer. The first author, a Black woman doctoral student at the time of the study with faculty aspirations and research interests in the educational and professional experiences of Black faculty within U.S. academia, reviewed all recorded interviews.
Data Analysis
Our analytic process was guided by our commitment to an intersectional qualitative approach to research; one that embodies ethical and responsible data use, synthesis, and organization (Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2022). To ensure trustworthiness, we sent clean transcripts to participants for review and feedback. They were invited to expand, correct, or redact their responses. Further, we conducted our data analysis through a non-formulaic multi-action coding process. First, we printed and read each transcript and jotted down initial reactions to the participants’ responses. Next, we pre-coded the transcripts by highlighting sentences and phrases that aligned with the scholarship on Black faculty experiences with teaching and mentoring. We then wrote preliminary notes about any connections we identified across the participants’ responses. Finally, we designed a codebook to manage the codes and our collective observations (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2011). The codebook included deductive codes (i.e., codes informed by literature) and inductive codes (i.e., codes informed by data). We grouped the codes into categories based on patterns and then developed themes from the patterns that cut across participants’ stories. Both authors drafted researcher memos throughout the data collection and analysis process to document our approaches and to critically reflect on our individual observations. To establish researcher agreement, we met weekly to reflect on our coding process and identify themes.
Findings
We identified three salient themes that reflect Black faculty’s mentoring approaches before and during the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic: (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.
“There Were People Who Paved the Way for Me”: Black Faculty Feel a Sense of Responsibility to Support Black Students
Black faculty expressed a belief that it was their responsibility to support Black students who sought them. More than half (19) participants shared instances where they felt a responsibility for mentoring or supporting students. Participants specifically described being intentional with supporting Students of Color in general and Black students in particular because they understand their unique needs. Lauryn, a Black woman shared that she intentionally supports Black students so they feel valued,
A lot of my mentoring, my intentional choice about Black girls and Black women, Black queer students, and Black trans students is really about making sure that those students know that they have somebody who sees them, and who believes that they are worthy. Valuable. Who believes that they are intelligent, even if they don’t write well. Even if they have things that they feel really insecure about academically, those are all things that can be worked on and improved. But that the core of their value lies in who they are, and in those life experiences that they bring.
Carmen, a Black woman in her first year on the tenure track, recalled the support she received when she was a student and wanted to return support to the students she mentors. She recalled,
There were people who paved the way for me, who created open doors for me, white and Black. And so I feel a responsibility to make sure that the students that I mentor have access to that same kind of opportunity.
Later in the interview when reflecting on her impact on students she has mentored formally and informally, Carmen described being a “lifeline” for students who may be struggling. Her hope is to be a motivation for those students to continue pursuing their doctorate. Janet, a Black woman shared that there are Black women students in the program searching for a Black women faculty to provide guidance beyond career support, so she creates space for them to have more personal conversations,
I kind of start with an acknowledgement that they’re not necessarily just looking for career advice, but it’s more holistic. It’s certainly career advice, but it’s also like, ‘how do I keep my face straight when I’m in class and something has been said that is racially insensitive or ignorant’? ‘How do I convey to my instructor that I want to use Critical Race Theory for my project?’
Similarly, Kirsten recognized her unique position to mentor Black students because “there’s not enough Black scholars within these environments, so they often only have a few and far in between to actually help navigate these very white structures.” Chris, a Black man, described supporting students outside of his assigned advisee, including students at different institutions,
I have another master’s [student] at another institution not necessarily getting what she needed. But we had to have a meeting that basically made it clear that I’m her shadow advisor. I’mma help her sketch out her dissertation and give her some summer research opportunities. And that, I think, is the thing people don’t see right? Like all these people that we meet at [conferences] just want to be in your proximity and just need a little bit from you.
Similar to Chris, Keith reflected that his presence made a difference for students who shared his identity,
I’m the only Black faculty member in [my program]. Even though our department has, by comparison, a lot of individuals that identify as Black. And so I think for me, just my presence, and not to bring it around to me by any means, but just my presence is somewhat of a contribution in terms of even determining–like we were reading through applications and seeing who was being advocated for versus those that weren’t and why.
Faculty also described filling in the gaps for their programs that do not adequately respond to the unique needs of Black students. Tierra, a former middle school teacher, expressed that she could support Black students in ways that white teachers could not,
I think that my contribution is, I do the tedious work of helping students be successful. . .And I think that comes from being a middle school teacher of Black students and I haven’t lost that. I feel this tremendous pressure, not a bad pressure, but it’s a good and a bad pressure of ‘I can’t trust white professors to give you what you need,’ and that’s how it was when I was a classroom teacher. I know these white teachers ain’t gon’ really tell you the real so you can be successful. So I’m gonna make sure if you ain’t get it from them, you got it from me.
Ultimately, participants recognized ways they could provide unique support to Black students. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Black faculty maintained or extended support for their students. In Clarrissa’s perspective, while everything shifted to a virtual format, the desire and need to have spaces for Black women remained,
I already knew that Black women need these connections because of what we know about Black women’s experiences and white hetero-cis patriarchal spaces. And then you add COVID, which might create even more separation, even more isolation, and yeah they gon’ need each other. So it created a greater sense of urgency, and I prayed for the students a lot more.
While many participants saw the benefit of mentoring Black students and named benefits, several participants also discussed costs they’ve experienced or complexities in their relationships with Black students. Black women in particular were more likely to name the difficulties they encountered as a mentor. Lauryn shared thoughts of her experience that align with mammy-fication, “many women of color and Black women in particular are asked to carry a lot of mentoring and kind of social care work, and it can burn us out.” Maya believed that her students held a particular image of her which created higher expectations for her,
I feel like a lot of the images, how people read my work even, they impose a particular kind of image on me. And I’m just like, get to know me. And I don’t even know if it’s mammy-fication, or maybe mammy-fication is like a component of it. But it’s like this fictive kinship.
Maya’s thoughts on “fictive kinship” highlights a concern of some Black students crossing boundaries. While other participants, especially Black women, shared Maya’s conflict, Derrick believed that the blurred lines in mentorship is a sign of a successful relationship,
I think a good sign of mentorship is when the lines are not always clean cut between mentorship and friends; like mentorship relationships are friendly. And it’s a good sign for me to blur those lines. . .when we can have comfortable conversations, not just about the work, but about each other and about family and about life outside of this because we’re whole people. . .When I think about relationship building and mentorship, at least my approach to it, it extends beyond just focused on what classes to take, how to think about these ideas differently, how to sort of be savvy when it comes to navigating the institution.
“It Really Starts With the Person Themselves”: Black Faculty Describe Their Approaches to Mentorship as Humanizing and Loving
Of the 31 participants, 21 described their approach to mentoring using descriptors like humanizing, holistic, and loving, and in ways that centers students’ full and authentic selves. Tony believes that students are drawn to a “healing and humanizing pedagogy.” Ryan said that his approach is humanizing, affirming and asset-based. He added, “It’s recognizing and pushing people when they don’t feel like they can go any further.” Chris summarized his mentoring approach as providing access to “good love, healthy choices, and second chances” for the students he works with. Martin explained that building meaningful connections “starts with the person themselves.” Before he begins providing academic and career support, he tries to understand who the person is. Similarly, Amber’s focus with students is to build meaningful connections,
I think the one thing across the board is that usually the things that bring these mentorship relationships together is that I am a professor and the people who I’m mentoring are students, but the thread across is human connection. When we’re having these times that we’re talking, spending time together, whatever it is, even if they’re calling me Dr. [Amber], we are seeing each other as people who are in relationship and are in community. And that for me is one of the reasons why I do this work, why I’m in this space.
Beyond supporting students to develop their scholarly identities, a third of the participants discussed affirming the identity of Black students, and their full and authentic selves. Amiyah’s approach to mentoring Black and Latinx students is fueled by her desire to mentor the full person. Other participants like Tasha described a holistic approach to mentoring. Lauryn explained that she is intentional about creating spaces where Black students feel safe to bring themselves as they are, and feel safe to say the things that are uncomfortable. She also believed that students needed to be seen beyond their academic contributions,
I think I engage in a type of humanizing practice even more intentionally than with my undergrads because I found graduate school to be incredibly dehumanizing, and so I really want to invest in graduate students in a way that reminds them that they are human. That they are not just a mind that they are not a machine, but also around this theme of self-determination.
Black faculty in our study recognized how they can serve as a role model or a model of success and possibility for their Black students. Ryan shared,
I see myself in many ways trying to role model what is possible, being a possibility for my students. And in that way I think that contributes to them seeing what’s possible for themselves. Many of the students who I mentor, they come from the kinds of backgrounds and have the kind of experiences that predict them being in the positions that they’re in right now. It’s helpful and affirming to have people who look like them, who have some of the same background experiences. So I think part of success is just knowing they can do it. It’s not their academics. . . I think it’s more than anything, it contributes to their beliefs that they can do this. That they can do research., and they can be a researcher, they can be a scholar, they can be an administrator, whatever they want to do, they can always do it.
Derrick also saw his contribution to students beyond their academic achievements,
I think I represent a sort of cognitive dissonance for them as it relates to what they envisioned educators to be and professors to be. And I think we start there. I think I use that as an opportunity or an entry point to say there are these ideas that you have in your head currently that are often confronted and negotiated in every walk of life. And how can we make students become much more aware of what they think they know and then give them the tools to interrogate what they think they know. And I use myself as an example of that because it’s one that is shocking to them, and a lot of ways had to confront that reality.
Tierra described her mentoring approach as a spiritual practice,
It’s really about just being present with people. When I’m mentoring, I really try to hear what they’re saying, what they’re not saying, what their heart is saying, what their spirit is saying. And then I try to think about how can I support them in what they want, or what they need in that moment, even if they aren’t articulating it. So what they’re articulating and what I can see, what they need in that moment, it’s a very spiritual practice for me. I really meditate on how can I be of service, of use, of a blessing to whoever I come across.
Beyond describing a humanizing and loving approach, participants discussed the ways in which their identities and their experiences in Black communities have influenced their approach to mentoring. Derrick believes that Black faculty see mentorship through “the village mentality” which involves “adopting” students in his village (or network) where they can receive the same support he benefited from. We acknowledge that Black people are not monolithic and therefore may not all share the same experiences. Nevertheless, we found Black faculty mentoring approaches to be unique and reflective of their racialized experience. Accordingly, participants like Tony and Lawrence understood and labeled this approach as Black mentoring. As described by Lawrence,
I feel like it’s less about who I mentor and more about how I mentor. Like I mentor in Black ways. I’m a Black mentor. And so my mentoring relationships are healthy in so far as you align with and find value in blackness. And so the people who become my mentors and enjoy it, regardless of their social identities, are people who appreciate Black mentoring.
More specifically, Lawrence also talked about creating a Black queer space,
I’m always thinking about how to make sure that my Black spaces are queer. And that my Black spaces are affirming women and resisting antiblackness, and resisting misogynoir, and resisting queer antagonism. Because we know that as beautiful as our Black space is, all of those things live there.
“This is a Space That May Not Always Feel Good”: Black Faculty Support Black Students in Navigating the Academy and Developing Scholarly Identities
While Black faculty’s approaches to mentoring are reflective of holistic support, participants also recognized that Black graduate students needed professional support as they learned how to navigate the academy. As Erica noted, “this is a space that may not always feel good. . .really being open and honest so that we don’t have to pretend that it is all hunky-dory here because it’s not.” Of the 31 participants, 19 shared ways they supported students’ socialization and helped develop their scholarly identities. Or as Tierra put it, “give them the playbook” to access institutional knowledge, also known as “the hidden curriculum.” Malcolm prioritized helping students gain autonomy and confidence by affirming them as a scholar and valuing their knowledge and opinions. Travis and Derrick both discussed how they share their networks with students they mentor and help them build their social capital. Nayla’s approach is to mentor Black students with the idea of subversion, resistance, and “understanding this white world of the ivory tower.” She declared,
My approach is just straight up 100% about what you’re dealing with and how do you balance? I don’t even know if I use the word balance, but understanding that this is a really complex kind of journey. . .You need to be able to understand the language, how to be strategic to get what it is that you want.
Amiyah and Clarissa shared their personal experiences with students to help them make their own choices. Gary and Raymond shared similar sentiments around valuing their students’ whole selves and helping them believe that they can make a contribution in academia. In a similar manner, Nia reflected on how she was socialized to conform to whiteness in order to be successful in the academy, and she did not want other doctoral students to feel that they had to strip part of their identity. Thus, she prioritized helping her students to “engage in the language practices of academia without losing yourself.” Similarly, Erica shared her goal of helping Black women navigate the additional burden of being in white spaces: “I don’t want Black women to have to shrink themselves to be here, or to mold themselves to be here.”
Discussion and Implications
Our examination illuminates Black faculty mentoring approaches and experiences in historically and majority white spaces. We sought to answer the following questions: 1. How do Black faculty perceive their contributions to the educational experience and success of Black students? and 2. How do Black faculty describe their approach to mentoring Black students before and during COVID-19? Our findings reveal that Black faculty employ an approach of what we understand as kinship mentoring in which Black faculty demonstrate an intentional, humanizing, mutually affirming, and kindred connection to Black students that they mentor.
BlackCrit supports our analysis of participants’ mentoring approach as a “(re)imagining of the significance of Blackness in our everyday lives” (Dumas & Ross, 2016, p. 418). Specifically, we highlighted participants’ intentional care of and commitment to Black students in antiblack spaces, acknowledging that Black people have been historically dehumanized in education. Using BlackCrit as a lens, we recognized two salient tenets that reflect participants’ commitment to helping students navigate HWIs: 1. A recognition of the pervasiveness and permanence of antiblackness in higher education, and 2. A practice of envisioning Black liberation.
The literature supports our understanding that Black faculty connect with Black students through cultural affinity. We interpret Derrick’s approach to be an intentional and kindred connection established with Black students. Nevertheless, the complicated nature of “blurring the lines” should be understood in a gendered context with consideration of the historical labor expectation and exploitation of Black women (Harley, 2008, 2022; Porter et al., 2025). Consistent with the literature, we speculate that historical stereotypical depictions of Black women facilitate interactions and expectations of Black women faculty (Patton, 2009; Porcher & Austin, 2021).
Our findings reveal a gendered dimension to kinship mentoring that warrants further examination. Black women participants disproportionately articulated the costs associated with mentoring Black students. Lauryn described the burden of “social care work” that leads to burnout, while Maya expressed discomfort with the images students imposed on her, questioning whether it constituted mammy-fication or “fictive kinship.” These reflections contrast with Derrick’s characterization of blurred boundaries as indicative of successful mentorship. We do not suggest that Black men faculty are immune to exploitation or that their mentoring labor goes unrecognized. However, the gendered pattern in our data suggests that Black women faculty may experience kinship mentoring as simultaneously meaningful and vulnerable to exploitation in ways that Black men participants did not articulate.
BlackCrit helps us understand this tension as evidence of how antiblackness operates differently across gender. Black women faculty’s mentoring labor is essential to Black student success and persistence, yet this very labor renders them susceptible to institutional and interpersonal exploitation rooted in historical constructions of Black womanhood (Harley, 2008, 2022; Patton, 2009). Maya’s resistance to imposed images reflects an awareness of how Black women faculty are read through gendered-race scripts that presume unlimited capacity for care. Her invocation of fictive kinship as a concern rather than an asset complicates romanticized notions of mentoring relationships and reveals the precarity Black women navigate even in relationships they value. The distinction between Maya’s and Derrick’s interpretations also illuminates how kinship mentoring is not experienced monolithically among Black faculty. While participants shared a commitment to humanizing and culturally affirming approaches, Black women’s articulations of boundaries and costs suggest that kinship mentoring requires ongoing negotiation of self-preservation alongside care for students. Future scholarship should continue to examine how gender shapes Black faculty mentoring experiences and the implications for institutional support structures.
Our study provides insight into Black faculty mentoring approaches before, during, and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. While our conversations took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, very few faculty talked about their mentoring approach and practices in the context of the pandemic. In fact, several participants explicitly stated that while they did have to come up with new strategies to respond to COVID-19-induced needs, their approaches and commitment to engaging Black students preceded the pandemic and were maintained during the height of it. Thus, the pandemic was not necessarily a pivotal moment for understanding Black faculty experiences navigating antiblackness in education. More pointedly, education institutions were not designed with Black people in mind (Allen et al., 1991; Patton & Njoku, 2019). Therefore, higher education institutions were never meant to affirm Black faculty’s unique approaches to engaging and supporting students. Dominant policies and practices in education have and continue to delegitimize Black faculty’s labor and their contribution to Black students’ academic success and persistence (Moore & Toliver, 2010). Nevertheless, Black faculty remain committed to supporting Black students as formal and informal mentors. As depicted in the scholarship, Black faculty are more likely to provide additional support to students who are not formally assigned to them (Griffin, 2013).
Supported by BlackCrit, we hold institutions accountable for the policies and practices that reinforce the historical marginalization and exclusion of Black people. We assert that Black faculty are not responsible for injustices in education that interfere with Black students’ success and well-being. Hence, Black faculty should not be expected to increase their service loads, especially without recognition or reward. Rather, we suggest that institutional leaders incorporate culturally relevant professional development and training that support all faculty in their engagement with Black students. At the same time, Black faculty’s kinship connection with Black students influences their dedication to supporting them, despite institutional disregard for Black faculty mentoring commitment. During the COVID-19 pandemic and a time of racial unrest, Black faculty maintained or increased their level of support to students. Therefore, institutional leaders should also acknowledge and account for the invisible labor and greater service workloads that Black faculty carry.
Scholars have begun a call for a greater consideration of service in P&T decisions (Connor, 2022). We recognize that Black faculty engage in invisible labor when they commit to supporting students inside and outside of the classroom. We also recognize that Black faculty hold greater service loads than their white colleagues as they respond to students’ racialized needs and challenges through cultural affinity. Yet, tenure-seeking Black faculty at research-intensive institutions are still expected to prioritize research productivity for P&T consideration. Our work confronts the capitalist nature of the US academy, and the historical exploitation of Black labor. Therefore, we encourage institutional leaders who are committed to supporting and retaining Black faculty and Black students to establish formal mentorship programs, and to honor and reward Black faculty for their invaluable role in the success and well-being of Black students.
Footnotes
Ethical Consideration
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at The Pennsylvania State University approved this study on 11/30/2020.
Consent to Participate
Participants gave verbal consent prior to starting interviews.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.