Group Development in a High School Adjustment Seminar

Abstract

Bion's concept of psychodynamic group process and Bennis and Shepard's theory of group development are applied to data gathered during participant observation of an ongoing seminar group consisting of five ninth-graders in academic difficulty. All were of Afro-American descent, as was the group's primary facilitator. Events noted over the life of the group that suggested phasic development are discussed in terms of the theory, and an alternative perspective is offered on the "dilemma" of the Black woman in authority.