Impact of Context

 “What is the impact of Context on teaching and Learning?”

“ ‘Caring is nurturing; believing is strengthening. Caring is validating; believing is promising. Caring is responding; believing is empowering’” (Johnson, 2013)

 

Context is everything… in the classroom and really, in every situation in life. Without context, we aren’t considering the whole person… the whole student. There are very few days that a person isn’t going through life with something that would be better understood with context. A student is acting out in class? Maybe they struggle with the subject. A student is hesitant to offer their opinion in class? Maybe they have a family member who is ill. A student has a different attitude than normal when asked a question? Maybe they are having issues with friends. Or maybe they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. That is why context, when it comes to teachers who are in classrooms where most of their students are in economically disadvantaged situations, it is paramount that we understand the context they are operating in.

That doesn’t mean that we as teachers should have lower expectations… It actually means the opposite of that. We should ensure that our own bias’s don’t convey a story to our students that they are capable of less than a student who might be in a financially stable situation. “Poverty does not mean a person is unable to succeed. Children who live in poverty can meet high expectations and standards…When we as educators understand and embrace this truth, outcomes for children who live in poverty will change.” (Johnson, 2013) I worked with a student in a previous placement who was several grade levels behind in math. What was extremely important for me to understand was that she was not behind because of capability… she had lived in another country for several years prior to that school year and the math standards of that experience had set her behind. If I had somehow communicated to that student that she was less capable just because she wasn’t at “grade level” that could have set her further behind, robbing her of reaching her full potential. Instead, we worked diligently together to make progress on her intervention material to help her progress.

“Johns Hopkins University Professor Robert W. Blum contends that lasting, meaningful relationships with at least one caring adult in the school are the cornerstone of connectedness.” (Johnson, 2013) Johnson’s point around connecting and validating really hit home for me. It’s a foundational principle of parenting that I believe in… Throughout my son’s life, when he is feeling a big emotion, for example, I’ve always tried to first validate his feelings, making sure he understands that his emotions are always ok. Only after that would I then provide any redirection of his way of expressing that emotion that might be more appropriate for the setting or the audience. I need to consider the context, in his situation it’s his age and lack of emotional development, that help me understand his reaction is not a moment to punish, but an opportunity to teach.

I’ll close with a quote from L.C. Clark, who wrote: “While I hold the position that expectations must reflect a belief in a child’s ability to meet the established standards of an academic community, I am not advocating such a rigid adherence to any standard that the humanity of the child be sacrificed. Rather, I am insisting that compassion be tempered with reason, so hat a child deemed “at-risk” be allowed to fully develop and experience his or her own power – intellectually, socially, and emotionally.” (2007) We, as teachers, have to balance our understanding of what the child is going through in and out of the classroom to ensure we are supporting their needs while not altering the expectations of that student.

 

References

Clark, L. C. (2007). Expectations and “At-Risk” Children: One Teacher’s Perspective . In Rethinking Our Classrooms (pp. 126–128). essay, Rethinking Schools, Ltd.

Johnson, C. (2013). Leading Learning for Children From Poverty. September 3, 2025, https://www.amle.org/leading-learning-for-children-from-poverty/