The importance of context to understanding learning

Abstract

To say that learning is contextual looks like a pretty bland statement. For one thing, it may seem like stating the obvious. Of course, all learning, indeed all human activities, occur in a context, so what is new? Yet much traditional educational thought has treated learning as either context-free or relatively independent of context. By contrast, much recent educational thought acknowledges the importance of context. So much so that the single term 'context' can seem to be a catchall idea for something that is seemingly too complex to unravel. The fact that we have a single general word to represent context may suggest, misleadingly, that it is a single thing. Yet, when examined more closely, context is something that is multifacetted, very diverse and very complex. Hence the feeling of blandness induced by blanket and undiscriminating applications of the term 'context'. Although much recent educational thought acknowledges the importance of context, some recent theories that locate meaning-making completely in discourse arguably have the paradoxical effect of once again rendering learning as context-free. However, there is a tradition springing from Kant and Hegel which accords centrality to context while taking account of its multifarious manifestations. Dewey, Vygotsky, Wittgenstein, and various writers influenced by their work provide examples of currently influential educational theories which belong firmly in this Kant/Hegel tradition. This paper will outline and discuss a range of the diverse ways in which learning is contextual and consider the possible impact of this thinking on educational practice.