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Classroom culture
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Is it the role of the classroom teacher to be an imparter of knowledge to their students? A carer and
stand-in parent? A moral guide?
In this article, Ros Mitchell describes how classroom culture can impact learning and considers how
local teaching context is crucial in defining classroom practices.
Should the aim of classroom pedagogy be to produce creative individuals, good citizens of the state, or
young people with a toolkit of skills which fit them for the world of work? And is it the job of the
teacher to offer individual students maximum choice and different learning paths, or to ensure that the
whole group of students in their charge progress to common goals?
In different societies, somewhat different answers have been given to such central questions
underpinning educational practice, in different social contexts.
As Robin Alexander of Cambridge University has shown in his groundbreaking comparative study of
primary education (2000, 2009), the answers adopted in different times and places are related to the
historical development of schools, and the expectations held of schools by wider society.
Cutting across this underlying set of local educational expectations and assumptions, language teaching
in the 20th century saw the introduction of modern methods, seen as universally applicable and
acceptable, such as the communicative approach, or task based learning (Richards & Rogers, 2001).
These methods have achieved considerable impact, again partly because of wider social change, rather
than necessarily any intrinsic scientific superiority over older methods. They are well adapted to a
number of broad shifts in language education goals:
The rise in economic prosperity and therefore in universal schooling during the 20th century,
which has seen language teaching spread far beyond a small elite;
A shift in views of the underlying purposes of education, away from the transmission of high
culture (which for languages, meant giving priority in schools to grammar and to literature),
toward more utilitarian goals;
A standards based philosophy of education, which views educational success as the achievement

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of measurable and pre-determined learning outcomes (reflected for languages, for example, in
documents such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Council of
Europe, 2001);
Increased emphasis on the development of communication skills, and of oral fluency in particular.
However, this international promotion of particular approaches to language pedagogy has not been
without its critics. Numerous teachers in local contexts have struggled to apply such concepts as
learner-centredness or learner autonomy, finding that such externally promoted ideas clashed with
deeply rooted cultural assumptions about teacher-student relations and effective classroom practices.
For example, Zheng and Borg (2014) talked to teachers charged with introducing task-based learning
into English language lessons in China. These teachers had their own views about effective pedagogy,
and interpreted TBLT accordingly. Miss Wu said:
I think I would like to use task-based teaching method whenever I can I intend to follow the
procedures suggested by the Teachers Book in my teaching plan, but I meet difficulty in teaching. You
know, my students levels are very different and it is hard to control the large class. Moreover, it is
time-consuming to carry out activities I have lots of content to cover. (Zheng & Borg 2014, p. 215)
And Miss Ma said:
With the introduction of the new curriculum, it appeared to me that our educational officials and experts
overemphasized the importance of developing students communication abilities in speaking and
listening. To them, it seemed as if developing students speaking and listening comprehension is all there
is in English language teaching. I definitely agree with the idea that speaking and listening should be
enhanced, but it does not mean there is no place for grammar teaching. On the contrary, grammar
teaching must also be better enhanced. (Miss Ma, in Zheng & Borg 2014, p. 216)
All the teachers in this study explained accordingly how they adapted the procedures suggested in the
Teachers Book, to produce workable teaching plans according to their own circumstances and teaching
beliefs.
Researchers such as Adrian Holliday of Christ Church Canterbury University have criticised attempts to
override local educational cultures through Western-imposed curriculum projects, involving the
routinisation and prescription of particular teaching practices (Holliday, 2005). Instead, Holliday argues
for local solutions to local educational problems, and for what he terms cultural continuity:
an appreciation of how cultural realities and practices connect and mingle to allow collaborative
inclusivity (p. 157).
You may like to watch Adrians talk on YouTube (55min:31s) on Authenticity, Communities and
Hidden Potentials.
What do you think? What is the role of the teacher? Is it to be an imparter of knowledge to
their students? A carer and stand-in parent? A moral guide? Or is it something else?
Tell us below and remember to reply to other learners comments.

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References
Alexander, R. J. (2001). Culture and Pedagogy: International comparisons in primary education.
Blackwell.
Alexander, R.J. (2009). Pedagogy, culture and the power of comparison. In Daniels, H., Lauder, H. and
Porter, J. (eds) Educational Theories, Culture and Learning, pp. 10-26. Routledge.
Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge
University Press. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre1_en.asp
Holliday, A. (2005). The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language. Oxford University
Press.
Holliday, A. (2013). Authenticity, communities and hidden potential in English language education.
Keynote Address, International Teacher Educators Conference, Hyderabad, India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUADbAPl1wk
Zheng, X. and Borg, S. (2014). Task-based learning and teaching in China: Secondary school teachers
beliefs and practices. Second Language Research 18 (2): 205-221.
University of Southampton / British Council 2015
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