Abstract

This article links student emotions during group work to a measure of demographic difference and makes suggestions for student group process and outcomes. Analysing the results from an open-ended questionnaire which probed student feelings, associations were found, for instance, between higher levels of demographic difference and anxiety and by contrast with demographic conformity and enjoyment. Greater difference was associated with lower self-scoring relative to the group. The article further goes on to investigate group process and suggests guidelines for setting these more clearly in order genuinely to prepare students for working in diverse environments. It is argued that this will also advance the transformation agenda in higher education by avoiding reproducing the structural relationships and experiences of the South African past.