Page 3 - MALVERN HIGH SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION

In the South African context, we have learners that comes from different backgrounds.

For example, some of the learners come from financially unstable families and some
come from financially stable families. These different learners from different

backgrounds are also characterised by different intelligences, which can be their

strengths and weaknesses. Accommodating all the learners with their different
abilities and intelligences and to achieve the desired goal of teaching or of education,

we need an ideal teachers, classrooms and schools. As educators strive to meet the
educational needs of all children, it is important to recognize the socialization

processes that help build positive and negative school attitudes. Society expectations,

school structures and peer influences play a role in understanding learners’ attitudes
towards learning and the teaching process. School; context also suggests language

minority, learners’ educational outcomes and attitudes are the product of the
interaction between school social contexts and learners’ and learners’ socio-cultural

backgrounds.

Cortes 1986 argues that school context curriculum and organization reflects specific

expectation of the majority segments or society. As learners’ groups hardly have

power to influence organizational and context of school by their unique socio-cultural
factors and the school structures which are influenced by societal context produces

diversity in educational outcomes.

It is imperative for an ideal teacher to know the school context in order to be able to

respond to the learners’ context efficiently. The school context serves as a guide to
the teacher, as to what measures the teacher needs to take to ensure that they create

st
an ideal classroom for an ideal learner in the 21 century. For example, if a teacher
perceives learners as blank papers that need to be filled and does not acknowledge
learners prior knowledge, does not know learners diverse background, then the

teacher will fail to be an ideal teacher in the sense that the teacher is not “ critically

conscious, socially just and inclusive of all childern and cultural funds of knowledge
they possess. In this regard, cultural inclusion and value of indigenous knowledge, so

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