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1st Wave Theory Application Paper

Hans Varga
Northern Illinois University
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Introduction

“I waved and waved, willing him to see me, to wave back, and we both kept at what we were

doing, our attempts at saying something never understood, until the distance between us made it

impossible to know when the other one gave up” (Crucet, 2016, p.380). Every year, at least one

college freshmen feels this way, watching as their parents leave them in a new environment.

Once you walk across a college threshold you will experience change, how that change impacts

you, no one is sure. A clear example of this is Lizet from Make Your Home Among Strangers.

Lizet, a girl from the outskirts of Miami, is forced to make some of the hardest decisions she has

ever faced between family, college, her future, and what her life will become. For years, people

have tried to understand this change that occurs in college students, tried to predict what stages

and growth occurs, and created theories to help students adjust to college.

I’m going to dive more in depth in regards to some of these theories. Then, I will analyze

Lizet, and the experiences she had, as told through Make Your Home Among Strangersusing the

above mentioned theories. We will examine Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberg, and Tarule’s Theory;

Women’s Ways of Knowing. Then we will look at Perry’s Theory of Intellectual and ethical

development. Then we will use these theories to analyze Lizet’s growth; paying attention to the

different stages that Lizet travels through. Finally, we will discuss where these theories seem to

succeed, and where the theories fail, especially regarding practical applications. By the end of

this paper, hopefully you will gain an understanding of just how powerful theories can be and

why there will never be one perfect theory that fits all students.

Theory Summary
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The theory, Women’s Ways of Knowing, was created after a good deal of research into

women in different situations including, but not limited to, age, circumstance, and outlook. The

theory is divided up into 5 separate perspectives. The first perspective, silence, is made up of a

feeling that they are voiceless and subservient. This stage is scarcer now, as times have started to

change, but those who were found in this stage found themselves “subject to the whim of

external authority” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 324). The second

perspective is Received Knowledge and is evident from a “Lack of self-confidence” (Patton,

Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 324). Women in this stage often only can focus on

repeating what they are told by someone in a position of power. This is typically seen in students

who are entering college first time. It is hard for these women to develop their own ideas in this

perspective. The third perspective is Subjective Knowledge and is identified by a lack of trust in

others, and more of a focus on oneself. “the truth is now seen as residing in the self” (Patton,

Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 324). This perspective unfortunately usually comes

from “a failed male authority figure” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 324).

Often this perspective pushes women to take a path of self-discovery, often requiring them to

move on from past events in their lives. The fourth perspective is Procedural Knowing and

“involves learning and applying objective procedures for taking in and conveying knowledge”

(Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 325). But this perspective also is unique in the

fact that it has two approaches to accomplish the learning objective. The first, “separate

knowing, uses impersonal procedures for establishing truth” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, &

Quaye, 2016, p. 325). Separate knowing focuses on logic to establish truth and emphasizes on

always questioning information that you are given. The second approach, “connected knowing,

is grounded in empathy and care. Truth emerges in the context of personal experience” (Patton,
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Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 325). The fifth perspective is “Constructed knowing

involves the integration of subjective and objective knowledge, with both feelings and thought

present” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 325). This perspective is the

collection of all the previous perspectives and has “two basic insights of constructivist thought:

all knowledge is constructed, and the knower is an intimate part of what is known” (Patton,

Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 325). Let’s look at another theory that falls into the first

wave theories; Perry’s theory of intellectual and ethical development.

Perry’s Theory of Intellectual and ethical development was created after William G.

Perry “engaged in research examining how students interpreted and made meaning of the

teaching and learning process” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 315). Perry

created a one size fits all development plan for college students. Perry stressed the need to see

students in motion, and not stuck at different points. The first position is dualism, in which

students view things in “good/bad, right/wrong, black/white” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, &

Quaye, 2016, p. 316). The second position is multiplicity which is defined as “honoring diverse

views when the right answers are not yet known. In such instances, all opinions are equally

valid” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 317). The third position is relativism, in

this position knowledge is found through an examination of “evidence and supporting

arguments” (Patton, Renn, Guido-DiBrito, & Quaye, 2016, p. 317). In the fourth and final stage

commitment, students learn that they need to apply a certain lens to all the information they gain.

They need to apply a learned knowledge, creating more of an ethical choice than one of

cognitive development. It’s also important to note that there is a chance of moving laterally

through the position. This is called temporizing and has three major facets, decalage, escape and

retreat.
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Even now, research into these theories continues, and more information and other

theories are being produced. But with the information that we have, we can analyze at least one

college students experience, and try to understand what she went through. Lizet lived a life that

many can’t understand, especially those who didn’t even know what she was facing. But,

hopefully by applying these theories, we can gain a better understanding of what she saw every

day.

Book Analysis

To look at an example of how these theories can be applied to a college student, let’s look

at the book Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet. This book can be

broken into three different acts in my mind. The first act takes place during Lizet’s first few

months of college and includes flashbacks to before Lizet came to college. The first act ends

after Lizet returns from Thanksgiving break. The second act begins after the judicial hearing.

This is after Lizet figures out how to succeed in school and starts to understand how college

works. At this point, Lizet is stable in college, and the second act ends. Thus, begins the third act,

in which Lizet faces the hardest challenges she has ever felt. She scrambles to find answers to

questions that are going to change her life forever.

In Act 1, we are introduced to Lizet, a young girl from Hialeah, a suburb of Miami. Lizet

is on her way home from college for Thanksgiving break. She had raised the money during the

semester to visit her family and surprise them for Thanksgiving. Lizet was having an extremely

difficult time adjusting to college and was in trouble at the school due to a plagiarism case that

was brought against her by an instructor. Lizet felt lost, she knew that she was going to be

removed from college because she had committed a wrong. Then, she was going to have to
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endure pressure from her family to marry Omar. She would return to her life in Hialeah and grow

up just like her sister. However, upon returning to Hialeah, she found her mother obsessed with

the arrival of a refugee from Cuba and felt that her family didn’t even care for her anymore.

When she returned to college and her hearing was given a verdict that she was not ready for, she

had to reconsider everything. At the end of act 1, Lizet has traveled through quite a lot regarding

the two theories we are looking at this book with. Lizet started following the theory of Dualism,

according to Perry. She doesn’t understand that there are more than two answers to every

question and is confused by the boards ruling on her case. She feels that the world is shifting not

only due to her hearing, but because of Ariel, the small Cuban boy who had arrived in the United

States. She can’t seem to find a single answer that she determines is completely right or wrong in

her life. While Perry says she is in this stage, Women’s Ways of Knowing says that she has

moved through a few different perspectives. Lizet started in the silenced stage, explaining how

her whole life she was supposed to grow up a specific way, find a husband settle down, and raise

a family. It’s what her family expected, and she felt forced into the situation. She changed this by

applying for colleges without telling her parents. Then, she moved on into another perspective,

received knowledge. Lizet doubts herself even after learning that she can remain in college and

was sure she would mess up or end up dropping out.

In the second act, Lizet must grow. She is pushed to start exploring resources no one had

told her about. She was also forced to find a direction within her schooling. Yet, in the process,

ended up meeting people who she would call friends. She started to grow within herself, began to

understand college, and how to succeed. The majority of this came without the influence from

home. She felt so much pressure from home she started to avoid calls. She became someone new

and started to use different aspects of the theories that we are talking about. With Perry’s theory,
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she transitions to multiplicity, and then onto relativism as well. Towards the beginning of act 2

she started to listen to others, started to listen to her friends and professors, and give all opinions

the same value. But towards the end of act 2, she began to transition into relativism, using the

knowledge that she gained from her start of school till present time. She began start forming

opinions of her own; realizing that there was more to life than just right and wrong. In fact, there

was a moral choice for each of the things that happened. However, every time she returned

home, she put her development on hold, and she retreated. According to the Women’s Ways of

Knowing, Lizet traversed through a small phase of Subjective Knowledge. This happened when

she started to search inside herself for answers. She did this because she has doubts in most

people after her boyfriend and her grew distant. Also, when her father never answered her calls.

She needed to find something inside herself to keep pushing through her classes. Then she

moved on to procedural knowing in which she started to look at things through on a more

emotional level. This especially happened when regarding her father, and the Ariel situation;

which she was immersed in whenever she went home. She started to find that she could see

multiple sides to arguments, and she would judge them on how her emotions felt.

Finally, in Act 3, Lizet faced one of the hardest decisions that she ever had to make. She

would have to choose between a promise she made to her sister, and an unspoken promise that

her mother had made with her that was expected for Lizet to uphold. Lizet was faced with the

idea that she needed to put her life on hold to help her family. Yet when she was home, her

family didn’t seem to care that this was affecting her; therefore, changing who she was. So, Lizet

decided to take a chance and accept an internship in California. In order to keep her life moving,

she would have to except that sometimes you can’t make everyone happy with decisions you

make. According to Perry’s theory, this is when Lizet enters the last position commitment, she
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finally applied a lens to information given to her; understanding that she needed to use her own

judgement in order to make decisions in life. This is something that she reflects on and regrets

not doing when she voted on the Ariel situation. Now according to the Women’s Ways of

Knowing Lizet also transitions through to the final perspective Constructed Knowing. Lizet

begins to look at things with a more emotional and logical lens; acknowledging that using just

one, isn’t the way to learn to make decisions. It is for this reason that she can decide to go to

California and not make a choice that was pushed on her, but to seize an opportunity offered to

her.

Analysis of Theories

After using two first wave theories to analyze Make Your Home Among Strangers, we

had a chance to see them in action. It seems like both theories can be used to analyze the book,

and that they both have stages that fit with some of the development that Lizet goes through.

These theories are an excellent base of knowledge to be used when trying to help students

succeed. They can be applied to anyone and can still make sense no matter what happens. For

example, in my work as a Hall Director, I come across students every day with whom I can apply

these theories to. I have started to develop programs to help students going through some of

these different stages, and I think it will help them in their time here at NIU. However, while

developing these programs, or even in analyzing this book, I came across a problem. These

theories are set up to be one size fits all. Therefore, you can modify them to any student, and they

can work. But, not to the degree needed for students to succeed. When it comes to identifying

how to help a person with a problem, a first wave theory can be applied, but it will not be the

perfect solution the student needs.

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Conclusion

The first wave theories are a very impressive set of theories that can be extremely

powerful regarding student development. They can grant a faculty member or an advisor a

glimpse into the mind of a student and help them try to gauge how to effectively help a student

succeed. However, first wave theories are like giving a surgeon a pair of scissors when what they

really need is a scalpel. In order to help a student, succeed, you need something more refined,

something that can fit a situation that an individual student is going through. But that type of

theory hasn’t been perfected just yet as far, as I know. But one can hope that it will be soon.
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References

Patton, L. D., Renn, K. A., Guido-DiBrito, F., & Quaye, S. J. (2016). Student development in

college: theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand.

Crucet, J. C. (2016). Make your home among strangers: New York: Picador - St. Martins Press.