Epistemological Lenses and Group Relations Learning1

This qualitative study uses a constructive-developmental approach to explore learning in a group relations conference. It investigates how orders of consciousness development (as assessed by Lahey et al.'s Subject-Object Interview) affects the sense of identity and the processes of change and growth as these are manifested in the learning experience of participants attending a group relations conference. The twenty-two volunteer research participants were students in organisational development and psychology doctoral programmes. Participants completed two interviews: a clinical-developmental Subject-Object Interview (Lahey, Souvaine, Kegan, Goodman, and Felix, 1988) to assess orders of consciousness development and a semi-structured interview designed to reveal self-other learning experiences at the conference. Analysis of participants' narratives of their meaningful learning experiences in this conference showed that what individuals learn reflects their pre-existing level of subject-object development. What participants found meaningful were the experiences that changed their perspectives of self and others. The study describes the mechanisms through which individual growth and learning may occur, and accounts for qualitative differences in that growth as a function of the epistemological levels with which participants enter such a learning experience. Systems learning, the heart of group relations work, occurs very differently for people at different levels and this has important implications for learning in a variety of contexts.