This past week, an individual I recently met shared an article with me titled “The Limitations of Teaching ‘Grit’ in the Classroom” by Aisha Sultan.
While reading this article, I found myself making connections to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model. Sultan talks about students in today’s classrooms and the power of societal structures. In other words, students in today’s classrooms are a product of the system. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model helped me think through this idea. Urie Bronfenbrenner explains that while teachers have an impact on students (a fact that cannot be disputed), students are also impacted by the neighbourhoods they live in, their socioeconomic status, the economic system, dominant culture and world events, for example.
After reading this article, what connections can you make?