Characteristics of Individualism and Collectivism, Essay Example

Understanding the basic characteristics of Individualism and Collectivism will improve my relationship with both students and families, especially as it pertains to issues of race.  As a high school teacher, I encounter many students who have already had experiences with racism at a personal and societal level.  One thing I feel lacking in my conversations with colleagues, students, and parents is an accurate ‘language’ to talk about this issue.  I don’t want to appear politically incorrect or offensive; I also want to be honest, without being callous, when discussing the ways that race affects our society as a whole.  Americans are more likely to display characteristics of Individualism, whereas immigrant groups are more likely to take on characteristics of the collectivist framework.  In the individualism framework, a major emphasis is put on independence, self-expression, and individual goals.  In the collectivist framework, the emphasis remains on family, community, hierarchy, and the group.   Within this framework, it’s important to follow group norms and show respect/adherence towards the rules, especially those developed by group elders/authority figures.  In contrast, individuals who adhere to an individualist framework have a greater flexibility in their roles and put greater value on individual choice over that of the group.

My students are a fairly diverse mixture of young people, some of whom are recent immigrants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.  I have found that my American-born students, especially those who aren’t first-generation Americans in their families, tend to be more outspoken in classroom discussions.  I don’t require students to raise their hands to speak during these discussions, provided that behavior remains respectful and orderly.  However, although my American-born students will speak over one another, and can often become quite emotionally-heated, my immigrant students always raise their hands, never interrupt, and will sometimes refrain from getting involved in the discussion if they don’t agree with me.   I’ve found that one of the best ways to get my immigrant students involved in discussions is to encourage my students to work in small groups prior to our larger class discussions.  This enables them to get ‘warmed up’ on a subject amongst their peers, which seems to give them much more freedom to express their own opinions without worrying about what authority figures such as myself will think.  I generally also leave these small group discussions ungraded, which seems to take some of the pressure off of both my immigrant students and some of my more intense, marks-oriented American-born students.

One other area where I’ve noticed a major difference in attitude between my American-born and immigrant students is when it comes to material goods.  My American-born students seem to have more things:  some of them already have their own cars, all of them have cellphones, and many of them seem very focused on the acquisition of more goods.  Although some of them work, it’s my impression that their parents buy the majority of these name-brand items for them.  The individualist drive to acquire more personal property is somewhat contagious within the classroom (especially amongst the girls, it seems):  one girl will purchase a new pair of shoes and two days later almost all of the girls will be sporting them.  My school is fairly affluent, and many of my students have a lot of disposable income, so the competition between students to have the newest, best, and coolest things is quite fierce.  My immigrant students tend to only get involved in this competition on the periphery of things; not because they’re not accepted by the other students (they are, and many of them have been classmates since grade school), but more because they seem to experience a disconnect between their own cultural values and those of their peers.

The clash between individualism and collectivism can interfere with classroom communications in a number of ways.  First of all, it can mean that those students who are more outspoken and outgoing get noticed by their teachers more than the students who tend to hang back and wait to see what the teacher says first before giving their opinion.  I think that teachers need to be aware of the cultural backgrounds of their students so that they can adapt their teaching styles to create a learning environment which is more conducive to allowing all students to speak their mind.  At the same time, I don’t think that a teacher can expect (or should expect) to change a student whose cultural upbringing has led him or her to do best in environments which are hierarchical, gender-based, and heavily value the group over the individual.   When I was first teaching I was very enthusiastic and tended to want to open my students’ eyes to all of the possibilities that the world offered them, sometimes to the exclusion of their own interests/desires and those of their family/culture.  While I try not to let my own personal beliefs and attitudes effect my relationship with my students or how I teach them, it is sometimes difficult to watch female students from collectivist backgrounds remain silent when they know the answer, merely because they’ve been culturally conditioned to behave in such a manner.  This is something I’m trying to work on, however, as I know how important it is to remain open and sensitive to all cultures, no matter how different from my own.