Group problem solving to promote integration in a desegregated high school: a case study

✍ Scribed by Joan P. Avis; Elizabeth D. Bigelow

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 720 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0165-0653
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00156465

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of a group problem-solving process to the problem of how to promote integration in a public secondary school in the U.S.A. The Improving the Human Environment of Schools (IHES) facilitation process of small-group, collaborative problem solving (Avis & Bigelow, 1984) was used to approach the broad presenting problem that the school was desegregated, but not integrated. Two observable manifestations of the problem -counselor programming, and differential academic achievement among white and racial/ethnic minority group students -were identified. Following an analysis of the counselor programming problem, the two solutions prioritized for implementation were to develop an integrated peer counseling program and to conduct a reassessment of counselor functions in light of the expressed concerns. Implementation plans and implications of the process are discussed. The case study represents a cooperative effort between a state agency and a local secondary school to address a complex, controversial issue in a positive, efficient, creative, and constructive manner.