Women's Ways Of Knowing Research Articles

Whisperings of Ovarian Cancer: Acknowledging Women's Voices

Ovarian cancer is described as being a whisper because it is challenging to diagnose at an early stage. Women need the voice to respond to the whisperings and nurses need to listen and acknowledge these voices. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study is to examine personal stories of ovarian cancer within the framework of Women's Ways of Knowing (WWK) to understand how women voice their "whisperings of ovarian cancer" and their interactions with healthcare providers. The importance of listening and acknowledging a woman's voice is illustrated by the five categories of knowing delineated by WWK. The categories of knowing are silence, received knowledge, subjective knowledge, procedural knowledge, and constructed knowledge. Listening for a woman's voice, acknowledging her voice, and being an advocate for her voice are key components of holistic care. Listening may play an instrumental role in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

Reacting to Change: Critical Media Literacy for United States Reading Teachers?

This study examines United States masters students' perceptions of a course in critical media literacy education. Using the Women's Ways of Knowing (1997) framework, we first lay out different epistemological understandings of critical media literacy. Then, using qualitative methods, we show how 55 students enrolled in a required media literacy course for their master's degree in reading display varied understandings of the course concepts corresponding with the Women's Ways of Knowing (1997) framework. Additional contextual issues contribute to the challenges of moving towards a constructed way of knowing critical media literacy.

Women's ways of knowing in nursing and critical thinking.

The purpose of this longitudinal qualitative study was (1) to extend the work of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule by interviewing female university nursing students to determine their "way of knowing" according to the Women's Ways of Knowing (WWK) schema and (2) to determine what relationship this way of knowing might have with critical thinking when accumulating a specific body of knowledge such as nursing. Interviews were conducted with 21 sophomore nursing students. Fourteen were reinterviewed their junior year, and 10 were interviewed or participated in a focus group their senior year. The procedural knowledge categories of separate and connected knowing became the focus of data analysis through the constant comparative method. Procedures for connected knowing were illuminated. Connected knowing was found to be congruent with nursing and the ways these women wanted to be as nurses. Separate knowing was found to be incongruent with nursing except for critical thinking purposes. Contrary to the notion that critical thinking is principled rather than procedural, procedural knowing, according to WWK, became the principle on which these women based their nursing actions, moving them to constructed knowers and caring, critical thinkers as they experienced nursing education.

Review of Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind.

Review of Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind.