Enhancing, Inhibiting, and Maintaining Voice: An Examination of Student Affairs Graduate Students' Self-Authorship Journeys

In this longitudinal qualitative study I explored the development of self-authorship among 21 student affairs master's candidates at 2 institutions. The findings suggest that growth, regression, and stasis in newcomers' developmental capacities for self-authorship occurred as they matriculated, and that these developmental trajectories reflected the amount of support participants received after experiencing dissonance during their graduate training. Notably, those who maintained or decreased their developmental capacity for self-authorship during graduate school did not feel adequately supported after having experiences that challenged the validity of their voices. Ultimately, these varied developmental trajectories influenced individuals' degrees of commitment to long-term careers in student affairs.