5/27/2021; Week 5: Individualism vs. Collectivism

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Do you enjoy being yourself and doing your own thing?  You may be from an individualist society. Consultation is always sought in a collective society. Comradery causes the need to emphasize care because you will be more responsible for the group you are representing. services and supports may be needed if we find someone needs assistance when changing from one type of social life to another inside of the English language classroom. The NCSET website shared, “As Trumbull et al. (2001) note, it is important for personnel to understand the basic differences between individualism and collectivism because these two orientations

guide rather different developmental scripts for children and for schooling; and conflicts between them are reflected daily in U.S. classrooms. Keener awareness of how they shape goals and behaviors can enable teachers and parents to interpret each other’s expectations better and work together more harmoniously on behalf of students (p. 6.)"

http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/diversity/partIII.asp offers a chart that shows the contrast between collective and individualistic values in society which I found very interesting.

What do you think your own country is? Ronald Reagan’s lawmakers gave a report called “A Nation at Risk” where it explains how we have been committing an act of unthinking and unilateral education disarmament.” Some believe the culprit for this is from having an individualistic approach in teh vast majority of people from the United States.

Allow me to attempt to elaborate on this individualistic idea a little bit. I see this a lot nowadays in how we interact locally. The moment we start to share a new idea here where I live, the community seems to totally reject it, thinking that it is a critique. In summary, you cannot communicate or in other words “share ideas”. Someone may even think you are trying to fight with him/her, when you really are only trying to talk to them. This kind of thinking would be dangerous for a society. Will we now, thanks to cell phones and apps, not be able to call each other on the phone like the old days just a few years ago?  Will the youth only accept digital “stickers'' as a means of communication? Having globalization and technology is not all fine and dandy with the temporary attempts to cure this problem (such as the “No Child Left Behind” program). It may come with a price in the end.