Skip to main content

Collectivism vs. Individualism



The article begins by discussing physical and physiological factors that scientists hypothesize make people think differently: our diet, our geographic location, and our social environment.
For years, sociologists and cultural theorists have been trying to analyze the cultural differences, but, almost all of this analysis has come from the perspective of Americans:
reported that the vast majority of psychological subjects had been “western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic”, or ‘WEIRD’ for short. Nearly 70% were American,” (BBC Future).
Therefore, although analysis on the individual and cognitive differences might prove valuable, most of the current research is completely euro-ameri-centric, which often essentialized groups by noticing characteristics that researchers would generalize for an entire society. Despite the critical view we must take on the research, certain trends and considerations arise for the unique cultural identities of our students and how this relates to the classroom.

See an example from the article:
Theme
Meaning
Classroom Considerations
Collectivism vs. individualism
-Certain societies tend to value the individual’s contributions more than the communal contributions; other societies value communal accomplishments over individual accomplishment
-WEIRD societies tend to value individual efforts, which plays both a positive/negative role on self esteem: lack or over confidence.
-Students from collective cultures may value shared and class accomplishments over individual achievements.
-People from individualist cultures tend to value individual accomplishments over positive relationships in a collective community.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cancel Mandatory State Testing in School Year 2020-2021

  Good morning - I am an English Learner Program Coordinator in District 26 Cary. I have worked for over 15 years serving multilingual and multicultural communities in Lake, Cook, and McHenry counties. In alignment with administrators across the state, I want to advocate for the cancelling of ALL required state testing this year. For students and families, this year has been challenging as we transition back-and-forth in between hybrid and remote instruction. Just now, based on current COVID-19 metrics, are we able to safely offer hybrid instruction. Hybrid instruction means that students will attend two days per week, two days with asynchronous activities, and one day of remote instruction. Families and communities have advocated strongly for in-person instruction to improve instruction, support the social-emotional development of students, and help students overcome the isolation of the last year. Please cancel mandatory state testing this year. Planning in advance, administratio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tough Conversations: When Students Make Jokes about Race in the Classroom

Written by Rocío Robledo-Zak Interviewed by Ryan Zak During a session of guided reading, I was re-teaching a mini lesson on cause and effect with a group of students. The passage we were using involved an expository text on the Pony Express. After students read the passage to themselves, they had to identify and describe at least three causes and effects into their journals. Once they completed that task, we did a turn and share in the group. One student identified one cause by stating that the riders of the Pony Express crossed territorial lands to help deliver mail and the effect was that Indians would kill them for invading their lands. After I praised the student’s response, another student made a teasing comment towards that student, “you see what your people did to the riders.” The lighter-skinned girl, whose comment directed towards the darker-skinned boy, seemed to have the explicit intention playfulness, but the implicit effect of race-related prejudice. After s...
Post a Comment
Read more