Alleviating Tensions in Small-Group Work

One place to begin is to attempt to address the concerns of students like Mina and Marilyn who feel burdened by having to assume the responsibility for doing most, if not all, of the talking in group work. In the interview excerpted, Marilyn suggested that group work would be more productive for her if the teacher could ensure that each member of a group had similar proficiency in English. This strategy, however, would result in placing ESOL students and students who use English as their primary language in separate groups. This kind of separation is problematic for teachers who purposefully establish linguistically mixed groups to provide opportunities for the ESOL students in their classes to practice English. Yet, to effectively manage the tensions that can emerge in such mixed groups, it may be helpful to be flexible in grouping arrangements and alternating the kinds of groups in which we ask students to work. Alternating grouping arrangements provides teachers with a space to encourage rather than restrict the use of languages other than English during particular activities. Although students working in their primary language lose an opportunity to practice English during these activities, they gain the opportunity to speak about academic material in ways that are enabling and might better prepare them for the kind of interaction, debate, even conflict, that Mina desires and that is valued in North-American classrooms. Thus, students can be given the opportunity to first work on a particular assignment in their primary language and then be asked to share their work in English with the teacher or others in a linguistically mixed group. Leonard Robertson shared the following experience with me:

Although I generally formed mixed language groups for the ISP in grade 11 and OAC (Ontario Academic Credit [courses]), I always chose who worked with whom, and there was one occasion when I allowed students from the same language background to work together. This interestingly enough involved four girls who spoke only English to work together on a project about Iceland, and four girls who spoke only Cantonese to work on a project about Greece. Having read your research, I am beginning to think I was intuitively reacting to a type of racist tension that emerged when the ISP was assigned. I'm not sure I taught these students anything about racist attitudes, but I did relieve what I perceived to be racist tension. By the way, both groups did equally well on the ISP project.

[Member Checking Response, June 12, 2001]

A second way to work toward alleviating tensions in small group work is to give recognition to students who take on leadership roles and try to work effectively across linguistic differences. This is another strategy Leonard Robertson had used successfully. In Mr. Robertson's class, recognition meant extra marks as they were the most valued form of recognition at Northside. Other forms of recognition recommended by multicultural education consultant Elizabeth Coehlo are a letter of commendation from the teacher or a school administrator (in a language that the students' parents can understand) or acknowledgment in a school assembly.¹

A third strategy for alleviating group work tensions involves the careful monitoring of the progress students are making on group work assignments. Mr. Robertson managed this monitoring work by asking students to document their individual responsibilities to the group in writing:

Whenever there is group work going on in my class, particularly with the ISP, there is always a form to fill out... They [the students] fill out only one form, but everyone gets a copy of it. So, everybody has something in writing which says that student A will be writing two articles on this, student B will be writing two articles on that, and student C will be writing something else on something else, and when the next meeting is. There is a written record that everybody has in writing. There is a common understanding that they can look at.

[Interview, May 20, 1998]

By asking his students to document their responsibilities and progress on major group work assignments, Mr. Robertson knew when a particular student was not contributing to the group work. He could take action to alleviate the anxiety of the other group members who were worried that they would all be penalized for that student's lack of participation.

... Now, there was one student who never produced any work... She had always been absent during any type of group work ... I thought this was avoidance, and I confronted her on the avoidance, and on the necessity of being in class, and then gave her some deadlines for producing work ... [I told her,] "If you do not have this work by Friday, you are no longer a member of the group, and your credit is in jeopardy."

[Interview, May 20, 1998]

Concluding this discussion on alleviating tensions on small group work, we'd like to touch on Mina's comment about being asked to work in groups in her English class, but having to solve math problems on her own without the support of students who might assist her when she runs into difficulty. If Mina had felt that she had access to assistance from classmates in her math class, perhaps she would have felt less resentment in providing assistance to classmates in her English class. Engaging with such a possibility means thinking about school-wide pedagogical interventions that encourage students to assist each other in a variety of classes. It means asking teachers and administrators to work across subject areas and departments to collectively plan ways of encouraging students to use their different academic strengths to assist others. Such planning can be complex and difficult, but may be a positive way to alleviate the resentment.

¹ See Coelho (1998).

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