Exploring Teamwork As a Tool for Knowing, Healing and Responding to Critical Incidents in Higher Education

Process-oriented teamwork pedagogy has received significant attention in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Its known benefits include increased engagement, cognitive development, belonging, welfare and motivation to learn. However, there is limited research on how students respond to critical incidents –such as triggering topics, social injustice or oppression –in team settings. Hence, we redesigned a university course around team-based and critical pedagogic principles to examine how group members influence students’ perception and response to self-identified social problems. The results in this paper are based on qualitative formative feedback from students (n=339) across three academic terms. In alignment with Mezirow’s transformative learning framework, we found that teamwork sparked realization and awareness, critical reflection, healing, increased self-beliefs and agency. However, students also reported fear, opposition, reticence and discomfort with teamwork, which caused them to devalue the impact of collaboration. We therefore recommend strategies to help educators improve team work in classrooms, and respond to students’ fear and opposition.