A Re-Examination of Racioethnic Imbalance of IS Doctorates: Changing the Face of the IS Classroom

There is an extremely low percentage of minority faculty in the IS field. This global trend is highly conspicuous-a minority of blacks compared to a majority of white academics in England, a minority of Aborigines compared to a majority of white academics in Australia, a minority of blacks compared to a majority of white academics in Canada, and for the purpose of our study, a minority of Native American, Hispanic American, and African American academics compared to a majority of white academics in the United States. Between 1995-2000, not only do AACSB reports indicate a continuous decline in minority business doctorates, but the accreditation body reports that the IS discipline shows a significant under-representation of minority faculty. In this study, we argue that mentoring under-represented groups in the discipline offers the field a myriad of avenues to change the “face” of the classroom and reduce this gap. We examine the absence of racioethnicity and mentoring in the IS field and offer lessons learned from The Ph.D. Project Model for engendering change and mentoring within the IS community. Using data from a six-year period, we discuss diversity issues, lessons learned, and recommendations from mentoring a group of under-represented IS doctoral students.