Elisa S. Abes - Böcker

Identity Development of College Students Building off the foundational work of Erik Erikson and Arthur Chickering, Identity Development of College Students adds broad and innovative research to describe contemporary perspectives of identity development at the intersection of context, personal characteristics, and social identities. The authors employ different theoretical perspectives to explore the nature of context—how it both influences and is influenced by multiple social identities. Each chapter includes discussion and reflection questions and activities for individual or small group work. Praise for Identity Development of College Students "Susan R. Jones and Elisa S. Abes have provided us with a comprehensive and beautifully written overview of the evolution of identity development theory. This book reads like a novel while at the same time conveying important ideas, critical analysis, and cutting-edge research that will enhance student affairs practice."—NANCY J. EVANS, professor, Student Affairs Program, School of Education, Iowa State University "The authors masterfully present a holistic, integrative, and multi-dimensional approach to the identity development of today's college student. This text should be required reading for those engaged in research and practice in the areas of student affairs, counseling, higher education, and cultural studies."—SHARON KIRKLAND-GORDON, director, Counseling Center, University of Maryland, College Park "Susan R. Jones and Elisa S. Abes's work is ground-breaking—charting new scholarly territory and making one of the most significant contributions to identity literature in many years. Building on contemporary and traditional theoretical foundations, Jones and Abes offer new models of identity development essential for understanding a diversity of college students."—MARYLU K. MCEWEN, associate professor emerita, University of Maryland, College Park

A major new contribution to college student development theory, this book brings "third wave" theories to bear on this vitally important topic.The first section includes a chapter that provides an overview of the evolution of student development theories as well as chapters describing the critical and poststructural theories most relevant to the next iteration of student development theory. These theories include critical race theory, queer theory, feminist theories, intersectionality, decolonizing/indigenous theories, and crip theories. These chapters also include a discussion of how each theory is relevant to the central questions of student development theory.The second section provides critical interpretations of the primary constructs associated with student development theory. These constructs and their related ideas include resilience, dissonance, socially constructed identities, authenticity, agency, context, development (consistency/coherence/stability), and knowledge (sources of truth and belief systems). Each chapter begins with brief personal narratives on a particular construct; the chapter authors then re-envision the narrative’s highlighted construct using one or more critical theories.The third section will focus on implications for practice. Specifically, these chapters will consider possibilities for how student development constructs re-envisioned through critical perspectives can be utilized in practice.The primary audience for the book is faculty members who teach in graduate programs in higher education and student affairs and their students. The book will also be useful to practitioners seeking guidance in working effectively with students across the convergence of multiple aspects of identity and development.