Resumen de Racial context, currency and connections: Black doctoral student and white advisor perspectives on cross-race advising
In the higher education context of the United States, in which Blacks have had the most significant increase among other ethnic minority groups, this article explores the cross-race advising relationship between Black doctoral students and their White advisors. Through examining congruence in faculty advisors’ and their student protégés’ perspectives on race, we find: (1) the role of race in context; (2) race as leverage and/or liability; and (3) the importance of same-race connections emerged as important issues: each has implications for doctoral student persistence and retention, faculty development, and graduate advising and mentoring. The implications of these findings extend beyond the US to other international systems of higher education where there is a growing interest in the increased diversity of doctoral students and the cross-cultural or cross-ethnic relationship between student and advisor/supervisor.
