Purpose of Measure: "Measures the degree of confidence that mentors have in their ability to complete CDA-relevant tasks. These items were developed based on the concept of self-efficacy, or the belief in one's ability to complete a given task."
Lay-Person Terms: Measures respondent's confidence in engaging mentees in a way that takes their different cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds into account, as well as how this can affect their experiences within academic STEM training environments.
Measure:
How confident are you in your ability to do the following in your research Mentorship relationships?
| 1. Not confident at all | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. Completely confident | |
| 1. Discuss with mentees how it feels to be a minority in science. | |||||
| 2. Take advantage of opportunities to address race/ethnicity in the research mentorship relationship. | |||||
| 3. Recognize the aspects of the research experience (e.g., lab, field work) that may make racial/ethnic minority students feel vulnerable to confirming stereotypes. | |||||
| 4. Provide opportunities for mentees to talk about their racial/ethnic identity as it relates to their research experience should the occasion arise. | |||||
| 5. Notice interactions in the mentorship relationship that could be insulting or dismissive to mentees because of their race/ethnicity. |
Type of Validity: "It was validated with separate mentor and mentee samples through a three-phase process of pilot testing and scale revision. Phase 1 was a small-scale pilot test of items with trainees and mentors. Phase 2 involved piloting the measure with a national sample of trainees and their mentors to examine the psychometric properties of the scale. Phase 3 examined evidence of construct validity for the revised CDA–R/E with a separate sample of trainees and mentors recruited nationally. "
Citation of Publication: Measuring Research Mentors’ Cultural Diversity Awareness for Race/Ethnicity in STEM: Validity Evidence for a New Scale, Angela Byars-Winston and Amanda R. Butz, CBE—Life Sciences Education 2021 20:2 Supplemental materials contain detailed information on validation and final measure.
Instructions to analyze and interpret: "Culturally Responsive Mentoring (Byars-Winston, 2014) refers to mentors who acknowledge their own cultural identity and the identities of their mentees and use this knowledge to improve their mentoring relationships. In order to become a culturally responsive mentor, one must first become aware of cultural diversity and its role in mentoring relationships. Cultural diversity awareness (CDA) refers to the ability to recognize culturally shaped beliefs, perceptions, and judgments and awareness of cultural differences and similarities (National Center for Cultural Competence, n.d.). A mentor who is proficient in CDA is sensitive to occasions to be culturally responsive, confident to do so, and attends to cultural diversity in his or her research mentoring relationships." Calculate arithmetic mean of item responses for mean scale score. Higer scores correspond to higher levels of CDA self-efficacy. Before calculating the mean scale score, the authors suggest running an internal reliability analysis on the scale. If the alpha coefficient is below 0.8 they suggest reporting the scale items individually. This scale can be used for training and interventions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Would require revalidation for use in postdoc populations
Other citations: N/A