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by Mary Belenky,
Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, Jill Tarule
The Five
Stages of Knowing
- Silence: total dependence on whims of
external authority
- Received Knowledge: receive and reproduce
knowledge
- Subjective Knowledge: truth and knowledge are
conceived of as personal, private, and intuited
- Procedural Knowledge: rely on objective
procedures for obtaining and communicating knowledge
- Constructed Knowledge: view all knowledge as
contextual; value subjective and objective strategies
What is Meant by Silence?
- Words viewed as weapons--worried about being
punished for using words
- Ways of knowing available limited to the
present, the actual, the concrete, the specific and to actual behaviors--life
see in polarities
- Blind obedience to authorities of utmost
importance for keeping out of trouble
- Speaking of self was almost impossible
- Women often talked about voice and silence in
describing their lives
- The development of a sense of voice, mind,
and self were connected
Received Knowledge
- Feel confused and incapable when required to
do original work
- Paradox is inconceivable--intolerant of
ambiguity
- The longer you work, the higher the grade
- Worry that developing their own powers would
be at the expense of others
- Look to others for self-knowledge--unable to
see themselves as growing.
- Think of words as central to the knowing
process--learn by listening
- Concrete and dualistic thinking
- Little confidence in their own voice--trust
that their friends share exactly the same thoughts and experiences--apt to
think of authorities, not friends, as sources of truth because of their
statues
- Equate receiving, retaining, and returning
the words of authorities with learning
Subjective Knowledge
- Distrust logic, analysis, abstraction, and
even language itself--some see these methods belonging to men
- Lack of grounding in a secure, integrated,
and enduring self-concept
- Fear that using combative measures in support
of her opinion may jeopardize connections with others
- "...Not at all the masculine assertion that
'I have a right to my opinion'; rather, it is the modest, inoffensive
statement, 'It's just my opinion.'"
- A sense of voice arises
- Truth is an intuitive reaction, experienced
not thought out.
- Still the conviction that there are right
answers; the source of truth shifted locale--truth comes from within the
person and can negate external answers--women become their own authorities
- First hand experience is a valuable source of
knowledge--The predominant learning mode is inward listening and watching
Procedural Knowledge
- The orientation toward impersonal rules is
separate knowing--"impersonal procedures for establishing truth"
- Relationship orientation has to do with
connected knowing--truth emerges through care
- Thinking is encapsulated within systems--"can
criticize a system, but only in the system's terms, only according to the
system's standards. Women at this position may be liberal or conservatives,
but they cannot be 'radicals.'"
- Knowing requires careful observation and
analysis--simple becomes problematic
- At first this does not feel like
progress--confidence wanes--the inner voice becomes critical
- "The notion of 'ways of looking' is central
to the procedural knowledge position"--knowledge is a process.
- Procedural Knowledge has elements of separate
knowing and connected knowing
Connected Knowing (procedural):
- Based in capacity for empathy
- Hope to understand another person's ideas
by trying to share the experience that has led to the forming of the
idea--begin with an attitude of trust
- Dialogue is more like a clinical
interview--"If one can discover the experiential logic behind these ideas,
the ideas become less strange and the owners of the ideas cease to be
strangers."
Separate Knowing (procedural):
- Opposite of subjectivism: "While
subjectivists assume that everyone is right, separate knowers that
everyone--including themselves--may be wrong."
- Realize that relationships are not on the
line--enables defense against authorities--experts only as good as their
arguments.
- Separation from feelings and emotions of
self in the cause of objectivity
Constructed Knowledge
- Integration
- Develop a narrative sense of self
- High tolerance for internal contradiction and
ambiguity
- Do not want to compartmentalize reality
- Constructed Knowledge
"Once knower assumes the general relativity of
knowledge, that their frame of reference matters and that they can construct and
reconstruct frames of reference, they feel responsible for examining,
questioning, and developing the systems that they will use for constructing
knowledge."
Opening of the mind and the heart to embrace the
world--establish a communion with what they are trying to Understand. |
