Learning Partnerships: Theory and Models of Practice to Educate for Self-authorship, Edited by Marcia B. Baxter Magolda and Patricia M. King, Stylus Publishing, 2004
Reviewed by W. Alan Wright, Université du Québec

"You are trying to fly off cliffs, and you crash a few times, and you soar a few times. " Gwen.

The Preface to "Learning Partnerships" quotes Gwen, one of lead Editor Marcia B. Baxter Magolda's subjects in a longitudinal study on learning development and pathways to maturity and lifelong learning. In the quotation Gwen is describing the process of mastering one's own destiny at college, a process Baxter Magolda and Patricia M. King have closely monitored over a period of many years. Put simply, the edited volume provides theory and  models of practice designed  to help students overcome their fears and limitations and take flight.

Baxter Magolda acknowledges that "the language of self-authorship may be unfamiliar" to many readers, but she maintains it holds an important place in "the lexicon of educational goals". What is the concept of "self-authorship" and how do the related theory and practice relate to "learning partnerships"?. A good grasp of the notions of "self-authorship" and the "Learning Partnership Model" are essential to an appreciation of this book, so this review will outline these concepts in some detail. Baxter Magolda  decribes self-authorship as "the developmental maturity…that undergrids lifelong learning and responsible citizenship" (xvii) while her "Learning Partnership Model," the result of a 17 year longitudinal study of young adult development is "a means of blending guidance and enabling responsibility to promote self-authorship" (xvii-xviii). Baxter Magolda draws on the work of Robert Kegan to develop her concept of self-authorship as one involving "internally coordinated" as opposed to externally imposed "values, beliefs, and interpersonally loyalties". Blending "challenge and support", simultaneously providing "empowerment and guidance" as well as "connection and autonomy" are attractive features of the Learning Partnership Model.

Part Two of the book consists of six contributed models of educational practice to promote self-authorship. The first (by Carolyn Haynes) describes a fascinating and commendable effort to promote self-authorship through a revamped, comprehensive interdisciplinary writing program at Miami University of Ohio. The chapter describes excellent work. Unfortunately, the credibility of the message is somewhat undermined by the striking fact that the writing cries out for revision. All those who write (this reviewer as much as any colleague) need an editor: what happened to the editorial function in the case of Chapter 3 in Learning Partnerships?

Other contributed chapters in Part Two include a description of a community college program to promote diversity education and self-authorship, an account of an urban leadership program, a gripping introduction to the harsh reality of working with the poor in El Salvador by Kevin Yonkers-Talz, an account of developing a learning partnership in campus housing intended for student service professionals, and a description of the "community of scholars" developed in a Miami University graduate education program by Marcia B. Baxter Magolda and three of her colleagues.

Part Three of the book offers a chapter linking the Learning Partnership Model to faculty and institutional development and a second linking the Model to the organization of a division of student affairs. Terry M. Wildman's contribution is particularly insightful and valuable. Wildman brings perspective to the enterprise of faculty development and to the role of the Learning Partnership Model. He sees the model as a frame, a compass to guide action, a model to "shape personal and institutional thinking". Rebecca Mills and Karen L. Strong write about how their institution used the objective of self-authorship to transform student affairs organization and operations to benefit educators and students alike. The account will be of particular interest to student affairs professionals, although some readers will consider a ten page Table chronicling the content of directors' meetings unnecessarily detailed.

The Editors devote the single chapter in Part Four to exploring with the readers, how the Learning Partnership Model might be applied to their work. Baxter Magolda and King provide a ten-step process (extrapolated from Haynes, the author of chapter three) for implementation of the Model. They take a practical workbook approach, offering "Notepads" for every step in the process.

"Learning Partnerships" is an ambitious book. It sets out to establish the Learning Partnerships Model as a framework to enable staff and students to reach what the Editors consider to be the main goal of higher education today " self-authorship. It moves successfully from theory to examples of practice to advice for implementation. Do you, like Isadora Wing in Erica Jung's classic novel of the seventies, have a "fear of flying"? Treatment begins with this stimulating book offered by Marcia Baxter Magolda and Patricia M. King