Group work and social inequalities in university education: a case study in French-speaking Belgium
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5902/1984644494444Keywords:
Cooperation, Social differentiation, University teachingAbstract
This research aims to characterise the effects of social inequality on the quality of group work produced by first-year students in the fields of psychological and educational sciences at a French-speaking Belgian university. It focuses on three social profiles: students from lower social classes, adults returning to education, and students from upper social classes. The data collected come from the analysis of work produced as part of a bibliographic research project by three homogeneous groups of eight students corresponding to these social profiles. It is supplemented by audio recordings of the group meetings they held with their assigned tutor. Content analysis of the verbal interactions reveals marked differences between the groups’ work dynamics. Adults returning to education develop a form of cooperation that is more focused on the learning objectives, with less division of labour, which seems to be linked to higher quality work. In contrast, the other two groups demonstrate a more pronounced division of labour, which is more in line with the objective of formally producing the work required. While both these groups’ work is of lower quality, it is noticeably more so for the group of students from lower social classes, whose interactions reveal tensions and whose work organisation is more deeply flawed.
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