To Pertenecer or to Belong: Collaborative Autoethnography of Two Latine Doctoral Students’ Experiences Searching for Mentoría in Higher Education

Abstract

Context:

Scholars position mentorship as deeply entangled with Latine students’ sense of belonging in higher education. Literature shows that students’ perceptions of belonging are strong indicators of degree completion and of students’ sense of preparation for postgraduate careers. Scholars stress the importance of mentors in navigating challenges unique to the Latine doctoral experience, including a lack of adequate Latine representation, experiences with tokenization, changing relationships with families due to newfound physical distance, limited community understanding of graduate systems, adjustments to the academic rigor of doctoral programs, and feelings of not belonging and imposter syndrome.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study was to theorize about our own experiences seeking mentorship and belonging as Latina doctoral students through collaborative autoethnography. We pulled on the common threads between our experiences and larger systemic processes to uncover the ways valued forms of capital in doctoral higher education can (un)knowingly perpetuate damaging forms of socialization and mentorship for Latine doctoral students. The aim of this study was to enhance the mentorship experience for Latine doctoral students and to provide considerations for doctoral programs to center healing as they support Latine students in navigating higher educational systems.

Research Design:

This study adopted a plática methodology, which we situated within the broader paradigm of collaborative autoethnography. It focused on how we, as authors, experienced belonging and mentorship as Latina doctoral students and the affective resonances of these experiences. Data included three hour-long audio-recorded pláticas supported by individual multimodal self-interrogations (journaling, letter writing, poetry, art creation), and additional WhatsApp voice notes that extended sense-making between sessions. Data was then coded and organized thematically, focusing on the following two themes: searching for belonging in peer support groups and subverting traditional mentorship roles to find belonging in community and research.

Conclusions:

While we conducted this study, we found that the very act of engaging in multimodal self-interrogations and pláticas as a part of data collection acted as a curandera, or healing, that allowed us to uncover, push against, and subvert dominant and oppressive forms of mentorship in favor of our ancestral knowledge and relationships. Thus, we argue that doctoral programs must begin to adopt an approach to mentorship that centers on creating more curandera mentorship experiences, experiences that intentionally serve as a foundation for healing generational traumas, allow us to collectively nurture community, share historias, and envision alternative futures for academia. In this paper, we offer two significant implications for doctoral programs to enhance the mentoring experiences of Latine doctoral students: (1) the creation of what we refer to as curandera groups, Latine-centered spaces focused on building community in a way that opposes monolithic constructions of Latine identities; and (2) using multimodal artistic creation as a means of supporting Latine doctoral students in (re)claiming and (re)integrating their ancestral and generational knowledge as a form of mentorship and building a sense of belonging.