From Tema Okun (2022):
“{O]ur cultural assumption that ​Individualism is our cultural story – that we make it on our own (or should), without help, while pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Our cultural attachment to individualism leads to a toxic denial of our essential interdependence and the reality that we are all in this, literally, together.
Individualism shows up as:
- for white people: seeing yourselves and/or demanding to be seen as an individual and not as part of the white group;
- failure to acknowledge any of the ways dominant identities – gender, class, sexuality, religion, able-bodiedness, age, education to name a few – are informed by belonging to a dominant group that shapes cultural norms and behavior
- for BIPOC people: individualism forces the classic double bind when BIPOC people are accused of not being “team players” – in other words, punishment or repercussions for acting as an individual if and when doing so “threatens” the team
- for white people: a culturally supported focus on determining whether an individual is racist or not while ignoring cultural, institutional, and systemic racism; the strongly felt need by many if not most white people to claim they are “not racist” while their conditioning into racism is relentless and unavoidable
- for white people: a belief that you are responsible for and are qualified to solve problems on your own
- for BIPOC people: being blamed and shamed for acting to solve problems without checking in and asking for permission from white people
- little experience or comfort working as part of a team, which includes both failure to acknowledge the genius or creativity of others on the team and a willingness to sacrifice democratic and collaborative process in favor of efficiency; see double bind for BIPOC people above
- desire for individual recognition and credit; failure to acknowledge how what we know is informed by so many others
- isolation and loneliness
- valuing competition more highly than cooperation; where collaboration is valued, little time or resources are devoted to developing skills in how to collaborate and cooperate
- accountability, if any, goes up and down, not sideways to peers or to those the organization is set up to serve
- a lack of accountability, as the organization values those who can get things done on their own without needing supervision or guidance, unless and until doing things on “our” own threatens power
- very connected to “one right way,” “perfectionism,” “qualified,” and “defensiveness and denial”
What does individualism look like in music education?
Manifestations
Where did you see this WSCC in your K-12 music education? Where did you see this in your preservice training program? How does this characteristic show up in your job requirements now? How does this characteristic show up in your standards? What behavioral management practices reflect this characteristic? How do your teaching practices perpetuate or challenge this WSCC? Try to be specific.
Remedies
What specific pedagogical tools have you used to challenge this characteristic? What repertoire or content could be incorporated to remedy this characteristic? What needs to change in music education culture or school culture in order to accommodate remedies for this characteristic? What do you wish you learned in your preservice program that would help you challenge this characteristic? How could remedying this characteristic benefit your students and their communities?
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