Many academic research groups in the life sciences involve undergraduate students in research. Research on mentoring undergraduates in research has focused on benefits for undergraduates while paying little attention to the experiences and outcomes of the mentor. In particular, virtually nothing is known about the experiences of postgraduate (graduate student and postdoctoral) mentors, who are often directly engaged in mentoring undergraduate students.
The goal of this study was to gain a holistic understanding of the experiences of post-graduate mentors in the life sciences. We were especially interested in learning about mentors’ motivations and outcomes (both positive and negative) as well as how post-graduates develop as mentors. We conducted 33 semi-structured interviews (n=19 women) with graduate students (n=26) and postdoctoral researchers (n=7). We targeted researchers from a variety of life sciences disciplines (e.g., ecology, neuroscience, biochemistry) and types of research (i.e., field work, wet lab work, computational and theoretical work). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an inductive coding process. Then, the results were considered from multiple theoretical perspectives (e.g., social exchange theory, expectancy value theory, social cognitive career theory) to determine which mentoring related theories had the greatest potential to explain the postgraduate mentoring experience.
Results/Conclusions
The postgraduate mentors in our study expressed a variety of motivations for mentoring undergraduate researchers and were often driven by multiple motivations simultaneously, including both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. These findings aligned well with the expectancy-value theory of motivation. Two of the most commonly expressed motivations were to increase research productivity (intrinsic) and to comply with the suggestions or requirements of the faculty head of the research group (extrinsic). Mentors reported benefitting from mentoring in many ways: socio-emotional, interpersonal, cognitive, and professional growth, often including increased research productivity. Mentors also reported realizing negative outcomes in both socio-emotional and professional realms, including lost research productivity. Participants often discussed their mentoring outcomes in ways that align well with social exchange theory. Postgraduates learned how to mentor through four main avenues: formal mentoring training (e.g., workshops), informal mentoring training (e.g., advice or role-modeling from others), learning by doing (trial-and-error), and drawing on their previous experience as undergraduate researchers. We end by proposing a model of postgraduate mentoring of undergraduate researchers that integrates the theories supported by our findings. We also discuss practical recommendations for designing mentor training programs specifically for postgraduate mentors.