Individualism vs Collectivism-Week 6-5/28/22


What is better, what is right, Individualism or Collectivism? That question can take us down many roads and the war on this topic has been fought for many years. It is time to drop the war and figure out how to live side by side. As you can see from the map above, a large part of the world is more of the collective mindset as shown by the red. The other part of the world, in yellow, is the individual societies.

As a teacher, I see multiple different viewpoints from my students, because they come from different cultural backgrounds. Some bring with them the collective view, while others bring the individual view. In a classroom, we tend to be more of a collective unit, working as a group to learn and help each other obtain the desired learning outcomes. This can look like a class being rewarded or punished together for behavior. sometimes it is broken down into smaller collectives and rewards are based on groups of students sitting at tables. This is still more of a collective view of consequences. 

To show a more individual view, you could walk into my special education classroom and see how individuals are rewarded or punished. In this class, I draw stars on a chart for students who behave appropriately. At the end of the row, the student gets a ticket which gives them a chance for a bigger reward once a week. This individual reward system encourages the individual and does not punish the collective class.

Both the collective and the individual approaches are important. For a large class, it is easier to handle the whole group by a collective method than an individual method. For those with learning disabilities, the collective approach is too broad and stressful for them to handle, so an individual approach is wiser. 

Just as we can see that both have their place, we can also learn to understand those who have a different view than ourselves. As a teacher, a student from a collective country might worry more about the bad behaviors of their classmates because they might think they will be punished, so they may try to stop the behavior of other students, which could result in arguments. I have seen this happen and it is hard because in America we push individualism so much that often we tell those students to worry about themselves and let the teacher handle misbehaviors. But if we allowed a more collective approach to occur, we might have more structure in the classroom. That is due to the natural consequences of bad behavior would be enforced by the other students, allowing the teacher more time to teach and less time spent on behaviors.

Truly the scenario could go many ways and it is important to know your students as individuals and as a whole. Help them to become strong individuals that can resolve problems and see their own worth, but can also see how the collective has helped them get where they are. 
 

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