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

community ofpractice, and in the context of curriculum change. The project entailed a
study ofhow teachers cooperated, collaborated and made meaning within this learning
community.
1.2.2 Rationale for the study
Conceptualising teacher learning in terms ofparticipation in a teacher learning
community is a relatively new phenomenon in South African teacher development. In
South Africa, Graven (2002) has conducted the only significant research study to date
that analysed the workings ofa teacher learning community, using 'communities of
practice' as a theoretical framework. This was a study ofa group ofMathematics
teachers involved in the Programme for Leader Educators in Senior Phase Mathematics
Education (PLESME). As the only significant local study on teacher learning
communities, the Graven study therefore had important implications for the current
study. Graven presented useful insights into how one could manage a dual role in this
project, namely, how to deal with the tension ofmaking a professional contribution to the
teacher learning community and performing a research role. Although Graven did not set
out to test Wenger's model, Graven's work provided story evidence that Wenger's model
and its associated constructs do in fact have significant potential for analyzing the
workings ofa teacher learning community. It is important to note that Wenger had
developed his framework based on research carried out in the corporate world where the
master-apprentice model for learning is valued. Graven was able to demonstrate the
specific application ofthe Wenger's core concepts of 'meaning', 'practice', 'identity' and
'community' to a teacher learning community in a South African context, a configuration
that was the empirical field for the current study.
The relationship between the present study and the Graven study is discussed in Section
1.2.3 below.
It was hoped that the present research study would illuminate and theorise the potential
that a community ofpractice framework has for teacher development, teacher
development programme design, and research into teacher development. The study
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