Consultation and Connected Knowing: What We Know Is Determine by the Questions We Ask

This article explores an alternative epistemology from which the practice of consultation can be considered. The alternative, described as connected knowing, characterizes the ways that many women make sense of the world (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986). Connected knowers explore academic and practical questions in the context of the human relationships involved. They ask questions and attempt to understand the positions and interests of the other people whose lives are touched by those questions. This way of knowing, available both to women and men, has immediate relevance for consultation research, practice, and training.