‘Check it again’: the cultural politics of mentoring in an engineering lab at a research university
通过20周的田野调查，研究了研究型大学工程实验室中指导如何被实施、体验和评估，发现指导并非公平分配，而是通过同伴层级和非正式网络进行，且存在门控机制。
Mentoring is assumed to be a natural and equitable process. Yet, in practice, it is shaped by power dynamics, disciplinary norms, and institutional expectations. This ethnographic study examines how mentoring is enacted, experienced, and evaluated in an engineering lab at a research university. It draws on 20 weeks of fieldwork in which I investigated how knowledge and guidance circulated, or failed to circulate, within the lab’s culture using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that mentoring was not evenly distributed but extended selectively, withheld strategically, and, at times, actively resisted. While formal mentoring structures were in place, mentoring often occurred through peer hierarchies and informal networks rather than faculty guidance. This ethnographic study also highlights gatekeeping mechanisms that shaped access to mentoring, particularly the expectation that students demonstrate worth before receiving help. Thus, it presents mentoring not as a singular process but as a negotiated and contested practice.