The Individual and the Collective in the Education Systems of Canada and the United States: A Philosophical Exploration

• In Event: 18.015 - "Peace, Order, and Good Government Versus Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness": A Presidential Panel

Abstract

The historical phrases “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the United States Declaration of Independence and “peace, order, and good government” in the Canadian Constitution Act signal significantly different orientations: the former toward individual rights, the latter toward collective responsibilities. Today, both orientations can be discerned in Canada and the United States, although with different emphases. This short paper will address the central tensions between individuality and collectivity expressed in these phrases, and analyze how they manifest themselves in educational discourse and scholarship in Canada and the United States. How have Canadian and US scholars suggested that education strike a balance between fulfilling individual desires and collective commitments? How concerned has educational discourse and scholarship in both societies been with individual rights or rather responsibilities towards shared and common goods? And what place has been assigned to individual autonomy and the recognition of interdependence in the aims of education?

Author

• Claudia W. Ruitenberg, The University of British Columbia