Teaching in low socio-economic status communities

There are teachers in schools throughout the developed world who daily respond to a great variety of similar challenges as they seek to engage poor and diverse students in their learning. A consideration of the commonalities and differences in their responses across international contexts is vital to the wider pedagogical project, and is a fundamental purpose for this book. Importantly also, and on the other hand, there is an astonishing range of teaching experiences across low SES communities and this is strongly reinforced in the research. Put simply, not all teachers in low SES schools are dealing with the same issues, and this means their creative contextual responses need to reflect their own personal, professional and pedagogical narratives. This chapter works across these two ideas: common themes and diversity of teaching experiences. As the different teaching and community contexts of these exemplary teachers are introduced, there is an invitation for readers to consider the ways the teachers' journeys and pedagogies shed light on their own school and classroom challenges, and this consideration works through both likeness and distinction.