GROUP APPROACHES TO MENTORING
GROUP APPROACHES— LEVERAGE THROUGH TEAMWORK
The Three Agents—<needs to be fleshed out>
The Group Approach: Turning Groups into Teams
The mentor as designer and group facilitator. (link with group approach to changer) Groups are also where students can find extraordinary avenues to positive change.
“Information is a surprisingly weak vehicle of change. Trusting individuals from an existing source of pressure or constraints, especially influences, is a surprisingly powerful vehicle.” (p 220) “Group dynamics can be the biggest barriers and the biggest motivators for change.” Kurt Lewin
Study Group at the YES Club House.
The Jigsaw Classroom. The middle school he attended was led by a principal who stressed social and emotional learning throughout the curriculum and who nurtured a school culture that directly addressed social prejudice and injustice. One such innovation involved the “Jigsaw Classroom,” the brainchild of the noted social psychologist, Eliott Aronson, now used in countless schools that serve low-income students all over the world. The principle: put students in small groups (five or six), with each students receiving only partial information of a whole. The result: each student brought with her a certain expertise; and all students needed to form a team to achieve a satisfactory academic result.
In high school the culture of the organizations he belonged to was unusually strong. His elite school had a firm and deep commitment to “equity and inclusion.” The Los Angeles Community Scholars program offered him a “clubhouse,” a safe haven. It was also a safe haven for his mother and grandparents to gain confidence in themselves and understand the world that had consumed Aurelio’s energies.
Then there are the groups within which Aurelio participates—the classes, the soccer team and the Cesar Chavez Society—that serve as channels where identity engagement takes place. These groups serve “double duty.” They influence him from within, as he navigates these groups’ internal dynamics. They also influence him by looking outward, especially his soccer team and the social justice work in the community through the Cesar Chavez Society. These are powerful channels that have replaced for the most part his prior dependency on his family.
Groups dominated his daily and weekly routines—his classes, his soccer team practices and games, the weekly meetings of the Cesar Chavez Society, not to mention his informal group of friends from his dorm. His “home-away-from-home,” the Los Angeles Community Scholars “clubhouse” was still a safe haven. Yes, as he reported every two weeks with the point person assigned to him for all four years of college. The power of the gangs in his neighborhood receded into the past, replaced by the power of his membership in positive affinity groups in college.
realize in real time how to reconcile one of the most underlooked of all identity formation agendas: to put into practice their natural sense of idealism and gain a sense of efficacy in the process.
Now that he’s away from the extended family that supported him so fully, these channels are no longer as powerful.
The Three Agents—<needs to be fleshed out>
- Individuals working on behalf of others = change maker as organizer and advocate
- Groups working on behalf of others
- Working through groups (study groups)
- Situations working on behalf of others
The Group Approach: Turning Groups into Teams
The mentor as designer and group facilitator. (link with group approach to changer) Groups are also where students can find extraordinary avenues to positive change.
“Information is a surprisingly weak vehicle of change. Trusting individuals from an existing source of pressure or constraints, especially influences, is a surprisingly powerful vehicle.” (p 220) “Group dynamics can be the biggest barriers and the biggest motivators for change.” Kurt Lewin
Study Group at the YES Club House.
The Jigsaw Classroom. The middle school he attended was led by a principal who stressed social and emotional learning throughout the curriculum and who nurtured a school culture that directly addressed social prejudice and injustice. One such innovation involved the “Jigsaw Classroom,” the brainchild of the noted social psychologist, Eliott Aronson, now used in countless schools that serve low-income students all over the world. The principle: put students in small groups (five or six), with each students receiving only partial information of a whole. The result: each student brought with her a certain expertise; and all students needed to form a team to achieve a satisfactory academic result.
In high school the culture of the organizations he belonged to was unusually strong. His elite school had a firm and deep commitment to “equity and inclusion.” The Los Angeles Community Scholars program offered him a “clubhouse,” a safe haven. It was also a safe haven for his mother and grandparents to gain confidence in themselves and understand the world that had consumed Aurelio’s energies.
Then there are the groups within which Aurelio participates—the classes, the soccer team and the Cesar Chavez Society—that serve as channels where identity engagement takes place. These groups serve “double duty.” They influence him from within, as he navigates these groups’ internal dynamics. They also influence him by looking outward, especially his soccer team and the social justice work in the community through the Cesar Chavez Society. These are powerful channels that have replaced for the most part his prior dependency on his family.
Groups dominated his daily and weekly routines—his classes, his soccer team practices and games, the weekly meetings of the Cesar Chavez Society, not to mention his informal group of friends from his dorm. His “home-away-from-home,” the Los Angeles Community Scholars “clubhouse” was still a safe haven. Yes, as he reported every two weeks with the point person assigned to him for all four years of college. The power of the gangs in his neighborhood receded into the past, replaced by the power of his membership in positive affinity groups in college.
realize in real time how to reconcile one of the most underlooked of all identity formation agendas: to put into practice their natural sense of idealism and gain a sense of efficacy in the process.
Now that he’s away from the extended family that supported him so fully, these channels are no longer as powerful.