Case Study, Angela, 10:

Angela is a 10-year-old child who identifies as mixed race. Her father of Jamaican and Trinidadian descent and mother of Irish descent divorced when she was about 8 months old. Because her father moved out of state and her mother worked long hours, Angela spent a substantial amount of time with her grandmother until she was about 5 years old. Her mother, who was employed as a server, sometimes worked 10- and 12-hour shifts. Her father worked as a manager of a grocery store seafood department and was sometimes relocated to new stores.

Angela has recently moved to a new location with her mom, farther from her grandma, about 30 minutes away, and into an entirely new school district. Imagine that you are Angela's guidance counselor. Her teacher came to you recently and said, "Angela is really quite intelligent and super creative, but I have noticed she is having a difficult time making friends. Do you think you could help her?"

Of course, you are willing to help one of your students, and you begin by observing Angela on the playground.

You have decided to have a couple of meetings with Angela to get to know her and then hope to bring her mom into the conversation.

Thanks to your work as her guidance counselor, Angela has made a successful transition and has friends at her new school. Furthermore, she has been asked to participate in a program as a peer mentor. Angela's school has a great deal of socioeconomic, racial, and cultural diversity. Unfortunately, there has been a significant amount of bullying due to perceptions regarding differences. Angela's role is to help other kids in her elementary school make prosocial decisions around the issue of bullying.

If Angela was working with her female peers, would you recommend a different strategy? Would that align with Carol Gilligan's perspective?