Context and Culture
Individuals are affected by their environment.
Everyone, including students, is affected by a variety of social and cultural factors, including:
Family units
Community groups, such as clubs, social circles, and religious organizations
Broader national or regional identities
School is both a social environment that affects individuals and a group that is affected by other cultural forces.
Debates about nature vs nurture have continued for centuries. Both have been shown to significantly impact people's lives.
This means that nurture (the environment and treatment a person receives) can have as much an effect as nature (a person's natural abilities and interests).
Since the 1970s, scholars have begun to question how we study culture. It is important to ask questions about culture, but it is also important to think about how we ask those questions.
Many have studied culturally relevant topics, such as
Race and ethnicity
Cultural values
Historical perspectives
Modes of communication
The importance attached to different kinds of knowledge
What's new in HPL2?
How People Learn (HPL1) focused on context and culture only as it directly relates to education.
For example, HPL1 observed that one cause of school failure is a mismatch between a student's home culture and the requirements of school.
The first edition recommended that, because culture and context influence learning, schools should be community-centered.
This is a good observation! However, HPL1 didn't go far enough.
Every individual comes from their own set of unique contexts, defined by multiple cultures interacting with each other.
Basic brain structures and processes are common, as are universal experiences, such as family relationships and developmental stages. But, context also impacts these things!
