The Individual and the Group: An Examination of American Folk Ideology

The problems faced by children in school are often seen as residing in either the individual or in one of the groups of which the child is a member. Rarely, in the way practitioners, theorists, and researchers describe what happens in schools, is the relationship between the two, individual and group, taken into account. After examining this dichotomy, an interpretive approach is proposed in which individuals and groups, the worlds of actions and ideas, are seen as mutually defining and constitutive.