Wk 3.1 The Social Constructionist Perspective

In the social constructionist perspective, communication is a means for creating and building the world and thereby understanding that world and how to function within that world. Within this perspective, people build up their sense of what is good and acceptable and what is not good and acceptable through interacting and communicating with others.

For instance, within the Individualistic classroom culture within the US, students, as individuals, are enthusiastically encouraged to speak up, freely raise their hands and promote discussions. This action can be interpreted as another means of being individualistic, since it promotes the student as an individual contributor worthy of individual recognition. As a result, certain students may have individual attention and recognition. This may make them happy and proud, especially if these students are openly and publicly praised by the teacher.

In contrast, within collectivist cultures, it is more acceptable for people to fit in with the crowd, to not stand out, thus fitting with their common saying about hammering the nail that sticks out. Therefore, their classroom settings would also follow suit as students are encouraged not to freely participate within the classroom setting or call attention to themselves. So one would typically not see students raising up their hands or voices, nor would one see a particular student in that culture making contributions to the lesson. Thus, if a situation where to occur when a student calls attention to his/herself, the others would look down upon that student, and the student would more likely feel embarrassment and shame, rather than pride.

It is significant to know how the same symbols, the same types of acts have different meanings and significances within different cultural societies. It is also important to understand this perspective since one action could accidentally offend a person from another culture and cause unnecessary conflict.