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Through interviews with 35 high-risk college students, the author examines two questions: (a) To what degree do high-risk college students possess self-authoring ways of knowing? and (b) What types of experiences are associated with development of self-authoring ways of knowing? Findings suggest high-risk college students often develop self-authoring ways of knowing prior to enrollment in college, especially if the students possess low levels of privilege. Self-authoring ways of knowing appear to arise from students' willingness to process provocative interpersonal experiences. A model of self-authorship is presented to illustrate these high-risk students' self-authoring processes.
When students come to college they bring with them their own assumptions about the nature of knowledge and methods for meaning making. According to college student development research, students' initial ways of knowing are dualistic (Perry, 1968/1999), received (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986/1997), and absolute (Baxter Magolda, 1992). Many students enter college believing there is a single right answer authorities should tell them. These students see the world in binaries of right or wrong, good or bad. As students progress through college, their ways of knowing become increasingly more relativistic (Perry), constructed (Belenky et al.), and contextual (Baxter Magolda). They move away from thinking there is always a single right answer and begin to see that determining what is right requires analysis of relevant evidence in light of the context (Baxter Magolda; Belenky et al.; Chickering & Reisser, 1993; King & Kitchener, 1994; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Perry).
This claim of progress does not mean development is complete upon college graduation or that all students develop contextual ways of knowing by graduation. In Baxter Magolda's (1992) study, for example, only 2 students in her sample of 101 moved from absolute to contextual knowing during college. Following her participants beyond graduation, Baxter Magolda (2001) discovered a sharp rise in contextual knowing; but as her participants entered work, committed relationships, and graduate study, they often felt unsatisfied, because while their contextual ways of knowing let them consider context when interpreting situations, this way of knowing did not include consideration of their own values and needs. Contextual knowers could effectively interact with others and construct knowledge, but their interactions and knowledge construction were not driven by internal foundations-an internally defined sense of self...