Making Their Own Way Narratives for Transforming Higher Education to Promote Self-Development

"...provides long-awaited answers to critical questions regarding how college impacts students' lives. Through an accomplished interview technique, the author provides us with an inside tour of the lives and minds of hundreds of college graduates. The longitudinal design allows us to comprehend more fully the lifelong impact of higher education. The author weaves these stories into a highly usable framework for educational improvement. Her concrete suggestions help the reader transform insights gained from the interviews into current college curricular and co-curricular practices. This book will be immediately useful for anyone connected to the college experience." -- AAHE Bulletin "This is a rare treat in the scholarly literature...not only builds on her prior work on students' collegiate experiences, but truly extends it into new dimensions. This is a truly significant accomplishment, and one that has the potential to make many scholars and educators reconsider their own basic assumptions about late adolescent and adult development." -- Patricia M. King, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor "...strongly recommended reading for educators concerned with the holistic development of their students and higher education's role in fostering critical thinking, citizenship, and civic leadership." -- Wisconsin Bookwatch WINNER OF AERA'S "NARRATIVE & RESEARCH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP 2003" BOOK AWARD What impact does a college education have on students' careers and personal lives after they graduate? Do they consider themselves well prepared for the demands and ambiguities of contemporary society? What can we learn from their stories to improve the college learning experience? This groundbreaking book extends Marcia Baxter Magolda's renowned longitudinal study and follows her participants' lives from their graduation to their early thirties. We follow these students' journeys to an internally-authored sense of identity and how they make meaning of their lives. From this, the author proposes a new framework for higher education to better foster students' crucial journeys of transformation -- through the shaping of curriculum and co-curriculum, advising, leadership opportunities, campus work settings, collaboration, diversity and community building. This is an important book for all faculty, administrators and student affairs professionals.Magolda, Marcia Baxter is the author of 'Making Their Own Way Narratives for Transforming Higher Education to Promote Self-Development' with ISBN 9781579220914 and ISBN 1579220916.