Finding the keystone for Deaf doctoral students’ success: Does mentoring matter?

ABSTRACT Mentoring has been an effective strategy that contributed to personal, academic, and career success on all levels. It has played an integral role in doctoral students’ journeys to successfully complete their degrees. Due to limited research regarding the emic experiences and perspectives of Deaf doctoral students and graduates with mentorship during their doctoral studies, data was collected and analyzed from focus groups. A grounded theory methodology with the method of constant comparative analysis identified eight common themes, which were synthesized to four categories; access, relationships, collaboration, and locus of control. The overarching theme using the in vivo codes was determined to be a ‘safe space’ which was the keystone to doctoral students’ overall success to complete the program. To support future Deaf doctoral students with mentoring, insights and recommendations for future research are shared.