Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

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On arrival at Neon Primary School, one gained the distinct impression that this school was well managed. During teaching time it was rare to find a teacher in the staffroom or children out oftheir classrooms. All classes were always manned. As I walked through the school I could see teachers and pupils busily engaged in their classrooms. The school buildings, being only eight years old, were in excellent condition. The school was surrounded by a high fence with razor wire attached to the top ofthe fence. Electronic gates led into a spacious car park. Gardens were immaculately maintained, with a just-watered look. Flowerbeds were freshly tilled. The school campus was in immaculate condition. It had a well-maintained sports field. On entering the foyer ofthe administration, one was greeted with an appealing display of well-positioned posters, school achievement boards, and staffphotographs. The foyer was spotless with shiny floors and a shiny staircase. The school secretary was ideally positioned with a view ofthe school gate, which she could open electronically from where she was seated. The sight ofthe principal moving around the school, visiting teachers in their classrooms, speaking to the gardeners as they tended the flowerbeds and engaging with parents was not uncommon. Field notes ofthis type create a fuller picture ofthe research context and afford a more substantial basis from which to interpret the data. While data collection in a natural setting alone does not necessarily make the research more rigorous, it does place the research in context and provides the researcher with a greater opportunity to explore meanings that are not evident from verbal data. "Interpretation is likely to stand up better to the critics where time has been spent watching, talking, waiting and observing what happens in the context and indeed, the culture under study" (JessopI997:53). 4.5 METHODS In qualitative research that seeks to interpret and make meaning within a particular research context, the central role played by the researcher implies that the researcher becomes the primary research instrument (Walford 2001; Wragg 2001;Delamont 2002). 123
In this qualitative study, my interest was in understanding the lived experience of teachers' worlds and the meaning they made ofthat experience. My prior experience in qualitative research as well as my reading ofkey texts by experienced qualitative researchers such as Delamont (2002), Woods (1986,1996), Wragg (2001) and Walford (2001), works which had given me both a practical and a theoretical foundation to conduct research in this tradition. This study required the careful development ofresearch instruments to assist the process ofmaking meaning. It was essential to develop tools that would probe teacher thinking and elicit biographical and career data. In the process ofdeveloping such research instruments, I drew on the work ofwriters that included Graven (2002), Goodson (1992), Woods (1986, 1996), Pollard (1982), Hargreaves (1994), Delamont (2002), Wragg (2001) and Walford (2001). Issues relating to career choice, biography, motivation and self-esteem emerged from a reading ofsuch works. My personal knowledge and experience ofteachers' limited knowledge and pedagogic base with regard to Economic and Management Sciences also helped shape the development ofthe research instruments. Semi-structured interviews, semi-structured observation schedules (see Appendix 4) and journal notes were used in this research study. A careful study of each teacher's personal records (lesson preparation files, assessment files and general resource files) and pupils' notebooks and files was also carried out. 4.5.1 Interviews "The interview is ...notjust a device for gathering information. It is a process ofreality construction to which both parties contribute and by which both are affected" (WoodsI996:53). A research interview can be defined as "... a two person conversation initiated by the interviewer for the specific purpose of obtaining research-relevant information, and focussed by him on content specified by research objectives of systematic description, prediction or explanation" (Cohen and Manion 1994:271). The interview is a short-term relationship that must be carefully constructed. It is a social relationship that "gives us an opportunity to get to know people quite intimately so that 124
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Teacher Learning in a Community of
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ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
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DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
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DECLARATION I, Suriamurthee Moonsam
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ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
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Observation ofJohn's teaching after
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A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
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TEMS RNCS EMS GET DoE INSET ELRC SA
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In describing the subject-pedagogy
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teachers lacked content knowledge r
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acknowledges the importance and pec
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some formal Mathematics teacher edu
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study, the coordination functions w
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It foregrounds the fact that the co
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school. Higher education opportunit
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frame models for projecting future
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teacher education by the state, (as
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schools, classrooms, management and
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Although the Teacher Audit indicate
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One ofthe first curriculum reform i
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entrenched design feature of C2005,
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In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
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LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
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As indicated in the previous chapte
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This view is supported by Putman an
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Learning is social in nature (Putma
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Constant reflection on and understa
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Teachers drew on their membership i
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The above arguments about the lack
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change. She highlights the importan
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Differences in the cultures oflearn
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persons and is not considered solel
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and offers insights into how learni
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America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
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learned meaning and value for them
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'accommodation' and intimates that
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staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
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Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
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directive in that it guides choices
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economic discourse, the economics p
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• Understand and promote the impo
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2.7 CONCLUSION This chapter began b
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(Walford 2001; Anderson 1999). With
Page 87 and 88: • It places value on the research
Page 89 and 90: The main research question in this
Page 91 and 92: Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
Page 93 and 94: 3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
Page 95 and 96: agree with the way it takes place o
Page 97 and 98: Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
Page 99 and 100: eflecting. The ability of a communi
Page 101 and 102: object to something that in reality
Page 103 and 104: practice is not just an aggregate o
Page 105 and 106: system or institution and the influ
Page 107 and 108: 3.3.2.4 Learning Practice has to be
Page 109 and 110: new possibilities for meaning. Brok
Page 111 and 112: These characteristics indicate that
Page 113 and 114: engage with one another and acknowl
Page 115 and 116: A structural model ofa community of
Page 117 and 118: who were regarded as peripheral. A
Page 119 and 120: Ideally I would have wanted teacher
Page 121 and 122: they represent key ingredients in s
Page 123 and 124: that the Wenger framework presents
Page 125 and 126: more useful and effective than part
Page 127 and 128: 3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
Page 129 and 130: • While my professional input int
Page 131 and 132: • Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
Page 133 and 134: observer played themselves out. A c
Page 135 and 136: organised events and linked communi
Page 137: In keeping with ethnographic princi
Page 141 and 142: collection. He questions whether co
Page 143 and 144: physical context, the complex body
Page 145 and 146: completed, final text: rather, they
Page 147 and 148: the teacher over classroom events (
Page 149: 'connoisseurship'. I realised that
Page 152 and 153: In this study, the criteria for the
Page 154 and 155: In Chapter One I described the sequ
Page 156 and 157: tactic by indicating to research pa
Page 158 and 159: On the occasions that I delivered b
Page 160 and 161: "Confidentiality involves a clear u
Page 163 and 164: were cordial and professional. The
Page 165 and 166: CHAPTER FIVE HOW HAD TEACHER LEARNI
Page 167 and 168: individual participants changed dif
Page 169 and 170: He received his schooling under the
Page 171 and 172: school regularly updated the books
Page 173 and 174: gone on to become really wealthy. I
Page 175 and 176: John noted that in planning the cur
Page 177 and 178: Significant changes had thus occurr
Page 179 and 180: just transfer it. For example, bank
Page 181 and 182: Extract from the lesson: John: Pupi
Page 183 and 184: schoolwork as 'economic work'. This
Page 185 and 186: John: Now we are not looking at thi
Page 187 and 188: cardboard and drawing or sticking i
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John: Now I want you to remember wh
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John succeeded in drawing on the sp
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at her maths books to which the tea
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issues that his pupils were raising
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5.5 JOHN'S CHANGING PROFESSIONAL ID
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to achieve their joint enterprise o
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5.6 JOHN'S INCREASED PARTICIPATION
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John regarded the close interaction
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As stated earlier, because the 'con
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CHAPTER SIX USING WENGER'S CONSTRUC
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6.2 SECTION ONE AN ANALYSIS OF TEAC
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understanding it at all. I just don
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In the final interview that took pl
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MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
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the little things like we started i
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understandings and conceptions ofth
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Extract from Mary's final interview
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Teachers were able to describe the
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The essential differences between D
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Debbie's school, Eden Primary was l
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what he's saying. And in that lesso
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they were excellent, really good. I
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Extract from first lesson observati
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out of the material that they had.
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largely recall, repetition or were
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Third extract from Debbie's second
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From the above extracts and discuss
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with a new set ofsubjects. Without
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was three kilometres away from the
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In the next extract, Ben referred t
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for making bread. The difficulty an
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T: P: T: P: T: P: T: Look again. Is
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stemmed from a discussion at the TE
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Key to the table A = Good/substanti
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was doing the budget and where they
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ofher school and the TEMS community
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Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
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Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
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CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
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As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
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The following extract offers a narr
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difficulties (ibid.). In the above
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A community moves from the potentia
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Cindy began the workshop with a tho
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oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
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7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
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necessary to learn what they needed
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Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
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the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
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knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
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MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
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The following extract from a worksh
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MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
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Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
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Soudien, a leading South African ac
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hand, adopts a 'narrow' perspective
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As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
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literature review revealed that the
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Another important feature ofWenger'
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'Identity' namely, 'learning as bec
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(Hargreaves 1995). Teacher professi
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for the purposes ofprofessional dev
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teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
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knowledge of subject content is ser
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South Africa, due cognisance must b
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8.3.7 An arena for engaging and con
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the provision of appropriate profes
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level conceptual thinking". They wa
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Collaboration within teacher learni
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has for teacher learning in a South
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Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
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Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
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Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
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Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
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Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
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Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
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APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
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2. What information have you been g
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APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
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APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
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