It is unfair to paint everyone with the same brush

“The context, therefore is important” (Rousseau & Powell, p. 29)

This article and this line in particular really hit me in a unique way because recently I ran a workshop at a school that is struggling to find the right path that will enable their students to improve their test scores and for the school to stay open. It really struck me talking with this group of dedicated teachers how lucky I have it to work in a school that where I have classes of sizes twelve to twenty, students have laptops and resources are fairly easily attained. Here was a group of teachers that were learning about a new programme that the administration have decided to try and implement to help ‘turn things around’. There were times where I felt awkward because I would talk of expectations, resources and ideas that would help ensure the implementation of a successful programme, and I believe they were thinking ‘when and how am I going to do this?’ It was so easy for me to talk about how wonderful this programme was, but I didn’t really understand what their day-to-day teaching life was like. I didn’t fully comprehend how adding these new expectations could potentially overburden an already heavy and highly pressurised workload. In other words, I wasn’t fully aware of the context that these teachers were working in, but how could I? I was brought in to talk about the programme, but I learned very quickly that these teachers were unaware of the potentially sweeping changes that were coming their way. What this experience taught me for future workshops – never make assumptions and always make sure to learn about what constraints these teachers may face in their schools as you may just never know that what may be a straightforward implementation of a programme to you, may be an overwhelming prospect for others.

Now this may seem like a story that digresses from this article, but I think there is a tie-in and that is when judgements are being made about teachers and the lack of apparent success according to outsiders, one needs to better understand the context by which these teachers are working under. Although NCTM talks about equity as “ALL students should have access to the type of high quality mathematics curriculum and instruction” (p. 20) in their documentation, which is certainly a key goal, it is critical to understand what might be stopping teachers from ensuring this from happening in the classroom. Outsiders need to take a closer look at what is happening in the classroom and in the schools and understand the concerns as expressed here (large class sizes, student absenteeism and state exams) by Teacher B that is stopping the implementation of reform mathematics. It must be disheartening for teachers who are working hard to teach mathematics in the best possible way to be judged by one set of exams. As these authors have illustrated, one should not make sweeping judgements without fully understanding the context – it is unfair to everyone involved.