The Social Context Of The School

In their appearance, schools often seem to be physically separated from their surroundings, cut off from the neighbouring houses and streets by high walls, by playgrounds or playing fields. Within the school, another world seems to exist, with a life of its own – its own routine, dress, rules and customs – which appears to have little relationship to the day-to-day life of the society outside. Yet despite these signs of separateness, we are becoming increasingly aware that a school’s surroundings, the local society in which it is set and whose children it educates, play an important part in determining what actually goes on in the classrooms and the playgrounds. This book looks at some of the factors in the local context of the schools and describes and analyses some of the often complex ways in which the schools interact with them.

Teaching in Context provides new evidence from a range of leading scholars showing that teachers become more effective when they work in organizations that support them in comprehensive and coordinated ways. The studies featured in the book suggest an alternative approach to enhancing teacher quality: creating conditions and school structures that facilitate the transmission and sharing of knowledge among teachers, allowing teachers to work together effectively, and capitalizing on what we know about how educators learn and improve. The chapters in this book point to the need to reevaluate current policies for assessing and ensuring teacher effectiveness, and establish the foundation for a more thoughtful, research-informed approach. "What a wonderful collection of diverse voices in this book, all sounding a similar message. Successful schools encourage and support purposeful collaboration among adults and they focus on students. In these schools, teachers feel more rewarded for their efforts and students learn more. Practitioners and researchers understand these findings. Now, let's build education policies that enable them." --John Q. Easton, vice president of programs, Spencer Foundation "Teaching in Context is a call to action--one to which Esther Quintero and her colleagues invite us to imagine, build, nurture, and protect a profession and culture fueled by supportive networks that produce more trust and less churn." --Ralph R. Smith, managing director, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Esther Quintero is a senior fellow at the Albert Shanker Institute. Andy Hargreaves is the Brennan Chair in Education at Boston College.

Why are children from disadvantaged and minority communities overrepresented among academic underachievers, poor learners, and school dropouts? This volume engages with this question and examines classroom learning as a process that involves a multitude of actors situated in specific social, cultural, and historical contexts. The volume covers an interdisciplinary spectrum of educational processes, contexts, educational ambitions, and limitations of low-caste, working-class, and middle-class students from different Indian communities and regions. The volume delves into the problem of academic underperformance from a social identity perspective and probes into social context-based variability in classroom learning, systemic disadvantages in the form of negative stereotypes, and the family as an under-studied social group in all discussions of schooling. It also examines the teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards Adivasi students and other minority groups in primary schools and their effect on children’s classroom engagement. The chapters in this volume provide insights into unresolved and critical research questions that require the attention of teachers, school management, educators, and policymakers alike. This book will also be useful for academicians, policymakers, teacher educators, pedagogic practitioners in India and abroad, and state and central government institutions working on school education, educational psychology, policymaking in education, learning methods, and research on educational enhancement.