See if you can notice the difference between this set of quotes-
“It's weird not to be weird.” -
"It's my right!" - Every American ever.
“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.”―
And this set of quotes-
"It's better that one man should Perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." - 1 Nephi 4:13
Collectivism requires self-sacrifice, the subordination of one's interests to those of others - Ayn Rand
One set of quotes places importance on the individual and doing what they want to do. The second set seems to emphasize an individuals need to do what is best for the society, or becoming one with others.
Did you choose what university you wanted to go to based on what or how you wanted to study, or where your family needed to be? What about what you chose to wear this morning? Was it based on what color would make you pop, or what might help you blend in more? These decisions are based on whether or not we live our lives individualistically or collectively. On one hand in individualism, sticking out and being unique is praised and will get you higher places in society. In collectivism it's all about the unit, how it grows as one. Depending on where your from, you probably lean one way or the other in your daily decisions.
When it comes to assessing the behavior and needs of my future students that will come from all over the world, there's a lot to learn. John J. Ivers, professor at BYU- Idaho gave a lecture on Individualism vs. Collectivism and he talked about how there was a Japanese baseball team that went drinking. When they got in trouble for drinking and driving, not just the driver got his license taken away, but everyone on the team did. This story made me think about how some students in the future might expect me to treat them differently. I haven't thought about that much in the past- how much a student would expect of me as a teacher. They might end up thinking I'm being unfair if their expectations don't match with my behavior.
There are many potential misunderstandings that could surface from those that lean towards an individual culture versus a group culture. For one, those in an individualistic culture might try to stand out in the classroom, and be overly communicative. Where as those from a collective culture might not stand out on purpose, and as someone from an individualistic culture, we might take that the wrong way. To better be prepared for these issues I'll have to understand why my students do certain things that they do. I'll need to learn as much as I can about their home life and how it will influence their needs in the classroom.
Something I wonder about the clashing of these two cultures that I'd like to ask you guys to answer in the comments is: what benefits or drawbacks you see that come from living in either of these two cultures?
P.S. fun fact- it took me forever to find any positive quotes on collectivism when I looked on the internet! Which I thought was very interesting, a lot of them were quite negative about it! Google takes into consideration where you live- maybe if I lived in Japan or some other place that is very group orientated I would have been given different search results!
Sources to check out-
John J. Ivers's lecture on Individualism vs. Collectivism
https://video.byui.edu/media/05+Individualism+vs+Collectivism/0_ojon0rjc
No comments:
Post a Comment