Anti-racist and inclusive mentoring in social work doctoral education

Doctoral social work education is challenged to revisit how we mentor the next generation of social work scholars to decolonize and de-center whiteness in social work research, education, and practice. Building on the existing literature and adopting the Delphi technique with four Delphi rounds that were based on a dialogue with 100 participants at a webinar on anti-racist and inclusive mentoring, an expert panel including members representing doctoral program directors, deans and directors, the Social Work Grand Challenges board on Eliminating Racism, BIPOC scholars, and a doctoral student collaboratively developed this model. This mentoring model included three interconnected components. An explicit definition of Anti-racist & Inclusive Mentoring provides a useful frame to clearly articulate the second component that focuses on action, steps, and strategies of this mentoring process. Effective anti-racist & inclusive mentoring is understood as a parallel process operating at multi-levels including the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and society level. Coordinated anti-racist and inclusive mentoring process efforts will lead to outcomes that include long-term and sustainable system changes and institutional changes. The Anti-Racist & Inclusive Mentoring Model highlights the importance of an interconnected and coordinated effort at multi-levels to create sustainable and impactful mentorship embedded in individual, interpersonal and system changes at school and institutional levels. In addition to doctoral education, the mentoring model will have useful implications for mentoring social work students at undergraduate and graduate levels.