Interview Strategies for Assessing Self-Authorship: Constructing Conversations to Assess Meaning Making

Abstract

This article presents two interview strategies used to assess college students' developmental growth toward self-authorship. We illustrate that self-authorship is a foundation for achieving many college learning outcomes and argue that designing practice to promote self-authorship requires understanding how to assess it. We offer a brief overview of the concept of self-authorship, explore the basic tenets of assessing self-authorship, and describe in detail two self-authorship interview strategies. The conversational nature of the interviews creates a learning partnership between interviewer and interviewee that serves the dual role of assessment and developmental intervention. Challenges and benefits of using these interview strategies to assess and promote self-authorship will help readers judge their utility in future research and practice.