Teaching Socio-Political Context

There is often confusion about what it means to teach socio-political context.

It’s actually a skill builder for students and leads to deeper learning, both content-based and social emotional learning. It helps with developing the core SEL competencies and it builds critical thinking skills. It respects voices and is restorative. 

In today's world, it is important to clearly define what teaching socio-political context is not. It is not about partisanship and the goal is not to suggest to young students who they should be voting for. It is not “liberal propaganda”. It is not an attempt to brainwash young students. Rather, it is the exact opposite. Teaching socio-political context is a way to teach students through meaningful discussions and critical thought. Teachers who use socio-political context to guide their students in considering works at a deep and informed level, share a skill that will benefit students in their future endeavors, both in the classroom and outside of it. 

We discussed the importance of teaching socio-political context on our Instagram page (@multiculturalclassroom) and shared these resources for educators and others interested in learning about socio-political context. 

We also offer Lorena's newest book Textured Teaching because one of the chapters focuses heavily on how to do this. 

Teaching socio-political context also supports culturally relevant teaching, which at this point, should be everyone’s goal in school, regardless of their subject. As you think about how to embed socio-political context teaching into your practice, consider visiting this post and check out the relevant resources we’ve listed.  

Thank you for being in our classroom!