Take Aways from Foster, Community and Cohesion

David Foster, Community and Cohesion in the Writing/Reading Classroom

In a nutshell: Solidarity, not consensus

Slightly longer: As teachers using group work, we should encourage students to value each others’ differences (even, or actually, especially, if they are dramatic), but for group work to be successful, the students in the group have to have mutual trust and common goals.

(Solidarity + Interdependence = Cohesion)

Very Long:

·         Group work has a long history in composition

·         Proponents say it is a part of democratic education

o   Nurtures collaboration and commonality

o   Based on participatory liberalism

·         Critics say that it diminishes differences and masks inequalities

o   Since deep inequalities still exist, efforts to create consensus in the classroom has the result of stifling individual differences

o   White middle class teachers don’t understand

o   Bringing into the classroom the non-academic world of “disadvantaged students” does little to help them change their status

o   Working in groups encourages participants to avoid conflict; these conflicts are exactly what should be confronted in a classroom

·         It is important to value and preserve difference, yet there still has to be mutual trust and interdependence—cohesion

·         The problem with many of the theories of community building is that they don’t address why students will be motivated to participate in group work

·         Teachers must encourage students to want both community and difference

o   This should be a goal of doing group work, not an assumption

o   Students should be asked to write about doing group work and its difficulties to build self awareness

·         Lack of cohesion makes students uncomfortable dealing with conflict

·         Students should be encouraged to recognize that cohesion can help them resist domination and help them with their own personal success

o   Question: who or what is the source of this domination?  Teacher?  Other students? Society? 

o   Using this as a source of motivation rings false to me.  At the very least, students would have to come to this conclusion on their own, inductively.  A teacher standing in front of class telling them that working in groups will help them resist domination will not be effective, I don’t think.