Bibliotherapy in the Development of Minority Group Self Concept

Abstract

Within the past few years special projects and services have proliferated which are designed to increase the academic attainment of students who progress ineffectively in conventional American educational programs. Despite differences in the materials and activities of these innovative programs, and in spite of the fact that the target populations range from pre-school to the college years, almost without exception their proponents subscribe to belief in the vital role that a positive concept of self plays in the development of a fully-functioning personality.' A positive concept of self, it is argued, is essential to the learner's personal, social, and intellectual growth and development. Bibliotherapy is frequently utilized in these compensatory programs as one of the vehicles through which personal and ethnic identification may be effected as a means of enhancing concepts of self.