New Study Centers First-Generation STEM Students Through Critical Intersectional Mentoring

Torres-García, C., Zamudio-Orozco, L., & Meráz García, M. (2026). A qualitative examination of mentoring practices for first-generation, low-income STEM students through a critical intersectionality lens. SAGE Open, 16(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440261431861

Introduction

First-generation, low-income students of color in STEM face a compounding disadvantage: the very mentoring relationships meant to support them often reproduce the inequities they are trying to escape. Torres-García and colleagues (2026) examined this problem through the lens of Critical Intersectional Mentoring (CIM), a framework synthesizing Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. The study asked how power, identity, and systemic inequity shape mentoring experiences for McNair Scholars in STEM.

Methods

Fourteen McNair Scholars from a Pacific Northwest TRIO program participated in pláticas, which were open-ended narrative interviews conducted via Zoom, averaging 75 minutes. Participants identified across racial, gender, and socioeconomic lines, and most identified as women. Researchers applied qualitative content analysis with independent coding and collaborative triangulation. The team’s positionality as McNair alumni and Latinx scholars informed a reflexive approach throughout.

Results

Three themes emerged. Power dynamics and intersectional identities shaped every relationship examined, with students experiencing gendered exclusion, implicit racial bias, mentor absenteeism, and in one case coercion to surrender research work in exchange for a recommendation letter. Despite these widespread challenges, four of fourteen participants described effective mentoring characterized by mutual respect, cultural transparency, and emotional validation, pointing to what is possible when mentors engage students as whole people rather than subordinates.

Discussion

The authors argue that mentoring failure is not individual, but institutionally rooted in the absence of accountability, diverse faculty, and training in culturally responsive practice. CIM offers a structural corrective, reframing mentorship as a social justice practice rather than a transactional exchange.

Implications for Mentoring Programs

Programs should integrate CIM principles into faculty development, establish accountability mechanisms disaggregated by race and gender, and build peer mentoring infrastructure for historically excluded students.

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