Social Relations as Contexts for Learning in School

Abstract

Questions concerning what works in classrooms have been asked many times. The answers so far have not resulted in any substantial educational changes, and our school systems continue to be in considerable disarray. In this article, R. P. Mc-Dermott emphasizes the importance of understanding the way relations between teachers and children affect the development of learning environments and examines how classroom interaction may promote or retard learning. He describes how teaching styles depend on cultural contexts and examines successful and unsuccessful classrooms with examples from a variety of school systems, including Amish and inner-city American. McDermott suggests that the ethnographic study of classrooms will allow us to look carefully at learning in terms of how teachers and students "make sense" of each other and hold each other accountable, given the resources and limits of their community.