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

unavoidable and should be informed by the overall purpose and theoretical perspective of
the study (Carspecken 1996). All science involves selection as well as abstraction.
Abstraction is essential for the understanding of any particular social phenomena. 'Ideal
Type' is a constructthat serves as a methodological tool that can be used in the analysis
of social phenomena (Weber 1949). An 'Ideal Type' is constructed from elements and
characteristics ofphenomena under investigation but is not intended to correspond to all
ofthe characteristics ofany one case. The concept 'Ideal Type' enables the creation ofa
composite picture against which all the cases ofa particular phenomenon may be
compared.
Following, then, the account ofthe learning ofthe selected teacher (John), the next two
chapters examine the most important trends that emerged for teachers in relation to their
learning, and concentrate on the similarities and divergences across the teachers.
An important element within the study is the question ofhow teacher biographies
impacted on their implementation ofthe new EMS curriculum in the classroom and the
effect that the contexts in which teachers worked had on their learning. It is for these
reasons that the account that follows begins with a description ofthe teacher and the
school in which he worked.
5.2 A NARRATIVE VIGNETTE OF JOHN AND ms SCHOOL
5.2.1 John's biography
John was an Indian teacher in his mid forties. He had been teaching for twenty-three
years. Having grown up in an extended family ofteachers, he had been influenced by
them to join the teaching profession. He described himselfas coming from a poor family.
As a child, he remembered growing up in a tin house in an area on the periphery ofurban
development. He recalled how his family had been forcibly removed from their first
home as a result ofthe notorious Group Areas Act. As a result, John felt that as a pupil he
had been robbed ofa stable school experience. Because his family had had to uproot and
move from the area in which they originally lived, he was forced to move to another
school. The authorities subsequently closed his old school.
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