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Making Connections

The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School

Carol Gilligan editor Nona P Lyons editor Trudy J Hanmer editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Harvard University Press

Published:1st Oct '90

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Making Connections cover

Making Connections maps new territory in the field of psychology. The essays in this volume are “a series of exercises en route to a new psychology of adolescence and women…[and] part of a process that they also describe: of changing a tradition by including girls’ voices, of listening to girls and asking again about the meaning of self, relationship, and morality—concepts central to any psychology of human development… Each essay originated with a question that arose or became clarified in the experience of the research. No attempt has been made to unify these essays or to arrive at a central thesis, beyond the common intention to listen for the ways in which girls orchestrate themes of connection and separation and concerns about care and justice in speaking about themselves, about their relationships, and about experiences of conflict…

“When Women’s Studies is joined with the study of girls development it becomes clearer why adolescence is a critical time in girls’ lives—a time when girls are in danger of losing their voices and thus losing connection with others, and also a time when girls, gaining voice and knowledge, are in danger of knowing the unseen and speaking the unspoken and thus losing connection with what is commonly taken to be ‘reality.’ This crisis of connection in girls’ lives at adolescence links the psychology of women with the most basic questions about the nature of relationships and the definition of reality. Girls questions about relationships and about reality, however, also tug at women’s silences.”

This [is a] carefully edited set of essays… While Gilligan’s In a Different Voice would be a better introduction to her revisionist work on moral reasoning, this volume provides an application of her approach that will help educators, psychologists, and parents of teenaged girls listen and understand. -- Patricia L. Linn * Antioch Review *
[The book] is an illuminating and thought provoking collection of essays which explore themes in female adolescent psychological development… These papers relate particularly to a longitudinal study involving a series of interviews which took place between 1981 and 1984 with students at a day and boarding school for girls—Emma Willard School, New York… The authors try to give girls a ‘voice’—to listen to what girls themselves had to say about ‘the meaning of self, relationship and morality.’ Through text which is rich with examples of the girls’ own narratives, the authors examine a range of developmental topics… The arguments developed within the papers are both challenging and stimulating. They provide interesting reading and are likely to encourage readers to rethink and reframe their understanding of adolescent girls in Western culture. Recommended reading for anyone who has anything to do with the education of girls. -- Sonia Sharp * School Psychology International *

ISBN: 9780674540415

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 590g

352 pages