Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) Workshop
Research shows that culturally diverse teams outperform and out-innovate culturally homogenous teams, and lead to better science. But addressing cultural diversity can be daunting. In recent times, we have been confronted with the difficulties of racial discussions and the legacy of racism in our institutions. Research is not insulated from these dynamics. This CIMER CAM workshop is one effort to increase effective mentorship toward advancing inclusive excellence in science (Byars-Winston et al., 2018 
). Although there are many aspects to cultural diversity, the CIMER CAM workshop focuses on race within the US. Extrapolations can easily be made to other aspects of our identities.
Although there are many aspects to cultural diversity, the CIMER CAM workshop focuses primarily on race within the US. Extrapolations can easily be made to other aspects of cultural diversity beyond race. CAM workshops are advanced trainings intended for mentors who have already completed core mentorship education and reflected on their practice. Therefore, prior mentor training is a prerequisite. If your participants have not had mentorship education, then we recommend you begin with a research mentor training course that includes at least 4 hours of training prior to a CAM workshop. CIMER offers core mentorship education workshops including Entering Mentoring or Managing Mentoring Relationships (or Mentoring Up).
If you are unable to meet the prerequisite core mentorship education for the CAM workshop, shorter mentorship education courses might be more appropriate for you. A number of offerings exist through the National Research Mentoring Network courses page as well as the University of Minnesota’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute , all of which cover topics of cultural diversity within mentorship.
Themes and Concepts
- Identify how cultural beliefs, worldviews and identities influence mentoring practices
- Recognize how cultural diversity can impact, complicate, and benefit research mentoring relationships
- Acknowledge the impact of conscious and unconscious assumptions, privilege, stereotype threat, and biases on the mentor-mentee relationship
- Apply evidence-based strategies using case studies to reduce and counteract the impact of biases, stereotype threat, and privilege to foster trusting, culturally responsive mentoring relationships
Implementation
We offer both hosted and public Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) workshops. Regardless of format, these workshops are led by two CIMER Principal Facilitators and participants are asked to complete roughly two hours of pre work (in addition to the prior mentor training):
- Hosted/private trainings consist of a full-day in-person workshop at your institution
- Public trainings, open to individuals, are offered online as three 3-hour sessions over Zoom, held one week apart. Sign up online to be notified when new workshops are scheduled.