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

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Later on in the lesson, John compounded the confusion as he attempted to move from everyday understanding towards disciplinary understanding ofEconomics. Economically inactive people such as pensioners may seek to keep themselves busy by doing odd chores around the house, but in an economic sense, this cannot be considered 'economic work'. The extract below depicts this misconception. John: Okay, I think you get the picture. These are the dreams, a salary can satisfy your dreams. Number 5... what is unemployment? ... Yes (points) Pupil: When you do not have work. John: When you do not have... work. Okay number six. Let me explain that ... can anybody say I have no work? (pause and silence). Yes ... I've just mentioned my father and my father-in -law, they are retired and they say every day we have to do some work. Can you say I do not have work? There's always something to do whether you earn a living or not. The lesson proceeded with John leading pupils from a briefreview ofthe concept 'unemployment' to the need to know how people could use opportunities to make things and 'earn a living'. John: Pupils: John: Pupil: John: Pupil John: Pupil: John: Pupil: John: Pupil: Pupil: Now let's go back to anyone who loses a job. We mentioned the word 'depression'. Now when a person becomes depressed, they just want to sit and stare blankly into space. How would you ... how can you advise them? What can you do to help them? (silence) What can you suggest to them? Is it the end of the world if you lose your job? (mumble) -No. What is it you can do? You can find a job or fix a job. Yes you can find a job. If you can't find a job then that person will continue to be depressed (points to the word on the board). He's gonna be violent. His whole attitude can change. A person who was always smiling will lose that smile. Ok but there are certain parts of the year, certain times, that they get happy ... at the end of the year we have .... Christmas. Christmas. New Year. New Year. Ok when else can they be happy, like the boy we have here. (Points to the pupil). On his birthday. On his birthday and this week? (loudly) Valentines Day. (very loudly) Valentines Day. 169
John: Now we are not looking at this unemployed person celebrating Valentines Day. He's got no money to buy anything. But what is it using his EMS skills can he do to earn a living? What can a person do to earn a living? I want you to get into your groups and discuss it. If you want paper to record your summaries, please group leaders come and take some. I'll repeat the question. What can a person do for Valentine's Day to earn a living? Discuss thiS in your groups quickly. For the remainder ofthe lesson, pupils worked in groups offive/six making Valentine cards and gifts, which they hoped to sell to the rest ofthe school later that week. 5.4.1.2 An analysis of the Economic and Management Sciences content of the lesson The key economic concepts that John wished to expose his pupils to in the lesson were that of 'work' and 'unemployment'. It was clear that John's own misconception ofthe economic perspective of 'work' resulted in his presenting a literal, everyday understanding ofthe concept. This led to confusion amongst his pupils as to what the term really meant. John's own misconception ofthe concept meant that he was unable to deal adequately with correct and incorrect answers that arose in the class. Further evidence ofhis limited EMS knowledge and insight was his inability to identify and link the concept 'work' directly to the group task he had set, namely, the manufacture of 'Valentine cards'. Issues and concepts such as 'division oflabour' and 'management' that emerged from the group task could have broadened pupils' understandings ofthe concept 'work'. It was clear that such issues had not occurred to John in the planning ofthe lesson. The concept 'unemployment' had been dealt with superficially with a casual reference to the Unemployment Insurance Fund. John did not attempt to explain how the fund worked or why it was able to payout only R250 a month to unemployed people. He also made no attempt to include in the discussion, people who did not belong to an unemployment insurance fund. In dealing with both these concepts, the crux ofthe economic problem, that ofscarcity and choice was not once alluded to. More specifically, John was able only to ascribe 170
Page 1 and 2:
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
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• It places value on the research
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The main research question in this
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Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
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3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
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agree with the way it takes place o
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Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
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eflecting. The ability of a communi
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object to something that in reality
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practice is not just an aggregate o
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system or institution and the influ
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3.3.2.4 Learning Practice has to be
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new possibilities for meaning. Brok
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These characteristics indicate that
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engage with one another and acknowl
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A structural model ofa community of
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who were regarded as peripheral. A
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Ideally I would have wanted teacher
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they represent key ingredients in s
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that the Wenger framework presents
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more useful and effective than part
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3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
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• While my professional input int
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• Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
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Page 135 and 136: organised events and linked communi
Page 137 and 138: In keeping with ethnographic princi
Page 139 and 140: In this qualitative study, my inter
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: schoolwork as 'economic work'. This
Page 187 and 188: cardboard and drawing or sticking i
Page 189 and 190: John: Now I want you to remember wh
Page 191 and 192: John succeeded in drawing on the sp
Page 193: at her maths books to which the tea
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Page 198 and 199: 5.5 JOHN'S CHANGING PROFESSIONAL ID
Page 200 and 201: to achieve their joint enterprise o
Page 202 and 203: 5.6 JOHN'S INCREASED PARTICIPATION
Page 204 and 205: John regarded the close interaction
Page 206 and 207: As stated earlier, because the 'con
Page 209 and 210: CHAPTER SIX USING WENGER'S CONSTRUC
Page 211: 6.2 SECTION ONE AN ANALYSIS OF TEAC
Page 214 and 215: understanding it at all. I just don
Page 216 and 217: In the final interview that took pl
Page 218 and 219: MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
Page 220 and 221: the little things like we started i
Page 222 and 223: understandings and conceptions ofth
Page 224 and 225: Extract from Mary's final interview
Page 227 and 228: Teachers were able to describe the
Page 229 and 230: The essential differences between D
Page 231 and 232: Debbie's school, Eden Primary was l
Page 233 and 234: 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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