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

What impact does a college education have on students’ careers and personal lives after they graduate? Do they consider themselves well prepared for the complexities, demands and ambiguities of contemporary society? What can we learn from their stories to improve the college learning experience?

This ground-breaking book extends a longitudinal study of 101 male and female college students started by the author in 1986, and reported in her highly successful and influential book KNOWING AND REASONING IN COLLEGE (1992). This book follows the journeys of the young adults remaining in the study—drawing on over 300 new interviews—from graduation to their early thirties.

Through the students’ own stories, Marcia Baxter Magolda allows us to follow their journeys to an internally authored sense of identity and belief systems, and in many cases to witness the development of the complex ways making meaning that are needed for fulfilling participation in modern society.

From her observation and analysis, she derives a new framework for higher education to achieve better stewarding and fostering of its students’ crucial journeys of transformation. She develops the concept of providing “good company”—through the shaping of curriculum and co-curriculum, advising, leadership opportunities, campus work settings, collaboration, diversity and community building—that young adults need along the way to finding and to taking their place as citizens and leaders in the twenty-first century.

This is an important book for all teachers and leaders in higher education who are concerned with the holistic development of students, and with higher education’s responsibility to foster critical thinking, citizenship, and leadership. It has particular relevance for student affairs educators and professionals; as well as for graduate, professional school and continuing education faculty who seek insight into young adult development.