Know your audience? Understanding social and cultural contexts is vital to effective teaching, communication

This chapter argues that understanding one’s audience, and associated social and cultural contexts, is vital to effective teaching and communication. It draws on two international examples (one in the USA and one in Australia) where a lack of understanding of social and cultural contexts resulted in communication that wasn’t as effective as it otherwise could be. The chapter advocates for co-designed approaches to more inclusive and nuanced communication and reflects on the aspects, such as time, flexibility, and an understanding of history, that are required for the design of more thoughtful communication messages. Overall, this chapter argues that understanding social and cultural context requires humility to admit one person doesn’t or can’t know everything, relevant relationships one can draw on to provide appropriate nuance and perspective, and a willingness to learn about the past and be flexible with how interactions progress alongside adaptability with what form the final artefact or outcome takes.