This episode shares an open-access article from New Directions in Teaching and Learning and examines how U.S.-based higher education institutions support mentoring of undergraduate research in global contexts.
See our extended episode notes at Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts - Center for Engaged Learning
This week’s episode shares an open-access article from New Directions in Teaching and Learning and examines how U.S.-based higher education institutions support mentoring of undergraduate research in global contexts:
Cruz, Laura, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Eric E. Hall, Amy L. Allocco, Kate Patch, Jennifer Hamel, and Jacqueline McLaughlin. 2023. "Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts (MUR-CG): An Integrated Model." New Directions for Teaching and Learning 2023: 29-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20556
This episode was hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric. 60-Second SoTL is produced by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University.
60-Second SoTL
Episode 45 – Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts
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Jessie L. Moore:
How are U.S.-based higher education institutions supporting mentoring of undergraduate research in global contexts? That’s the focus of this week’s 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. I’m Jessie Moore.
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In “Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts (MUR-CG): An Integrated Model,” published as an open access article in New Directions in Teaching and Learning, Laura Cruz, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Eric Hall, Amy Allocco, Kate Patch, Jennifer Hamel, and Jacqueline McLaughlin share results from a U.S.-based survey on programs and practices.
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148 institutional representatives completed the survey, providing information on their campuses’ participants, modalities, salient practices, challenges, opportunities, and professional development for mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts.
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The authors report that mentors for this particular type of undergraduate research can include faculty, local and global community members, professional staff, global programs office staff, peers, librarians, and graduate students. As a result, professional development needs for mentors may vary considerable depending on the prior experiences of each mentor.
The researchers share that mentored undergraduate research in global contexts is most likely to occur in short-term study away, credit-bearing on-campus courses, or as course embedded experiences, but can also take place in semester-long study away, virtual opportunities, and community-based global learning.
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Building on one of the author’s previous multi-institutional research studies on salient practices of undergraduate research mentoring – which you can learn more about on the Center for Engaged Learning website – the researchers also asked participants to indicate how important the ten salient practices were in mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts, specifically. Survey participants indicated four of the practices had high importance and four had moderate importance, but two were less important in this context. This particular finding contributes to the authors’ suggestion that mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts should not be viewed simply as a combination of undergraduate research and global education. Instead, mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts is a distinct framework, necessitating its own set of salient practices.
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That said, eight of the salient practices for mentoring undergraduate research have a significant role in this work and shouldn’t be discounted. The four salient practices with the highest importance are:
The researchers also asked which of the ten salient practices were most challenging in mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts. The three top challenges were:
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The majority of survey participants reported having little to no formal training related to mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts.
Nevertheless, the authors report that their participants remain optimistic about the potential of this engaged learning practice for focusing on learning processes and preparing students to address wicked problems.
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To learn more about this study, visit our show notes for a link to the open access article and related resources.
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Join us next week for another snapshot of recent scholarship of teaching and learning on 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. Learn more about the Center at www.CenterForEngagedLearning.org.
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