Trust in Online Collaborative Groups - A Constructivist Psychodynamic View

Open and sustained discussions within diverse collaborative online groups should provide opportunities for adults to reshape their thinking, deeply understand the subject content, have their voices heard and respected, and expand their epistemic development. These possibilities turn on issues of trust among the group members; the ability to trust differences and epistemic concerns. That is, the ability to trust thoughts that are different from our own is influenced by the learners’ ability to be open about their beliefs and to develop healthy self-other relationships within their small groups. Additionally, the ability to collaborate may present epistemic challenges for the students and hinder their capacity to trust their own and their fellow students’ ability to help them learn and hinder the capacity of the group-as-a-whole to grow and develop. This paper discusses previous research (Smith, 2008; 2009) results demonstrate that student groups use various pathological defense strategies to avoid the types of discussion necessary to fully engage in the difference as well as explore their epistemic concerns. These issues become trust issues for the group-as-a-whole to resolve, which it fails to do. Implications for adult and continuing education are discussed.