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

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Debbie's practice in terms of 'questioning and rapport' had shifted significantly and had revealed a marked development. The quality of 'teaching resources' employed had changed and moved beyond being adequate towards becoming really good. The nature and quality ofpupils' involvement had shifted from being mere mechanical exercises. Her lesson revealed that quality 'pupil involvement' in meaningful tasks that engaged with EMS concepts and phenomena, was substantially present. Brodie et ai's notion of the tension between 'form' and 'substance' appeared to be managed with increasing competence (Brodie et al 2002). In the next section, I analyse Ben's changing practice in terms ofthe categorisations used above, namely, 'content knowledge', 'pedagogic content knowledge', 'pupil involvement', 'questioning and rapport' and 'teaching resources'. 6.3.4 A narrative vignette of Ben Ben was an isiZulu speaking African teacher in his mid-forties. He had taught at eight different schools in his teaching career, and regarded his current school as the best that he had taught at. While his school may not have had all the facilities ofthe more advantaged schools, he felt that his school staffwas very united. This is significant in that ofall the participating schools, Pecan Primary was the poorest and least resourced. A detailed description ofthe school follows later in this section. Ben described his childhood as being a happy experience. Although the man who had raised him was not his biological father, he had taken good care ofhim. He appeared grateful for what his parents had provided for him given the poor conditions under which they lived. He had been moved to several schools during his school career because his parents had moved house several times. Ben had a disrupted academic career. He explained how he had to change subjects from Mathematics and Physical Science in high school because he had found them too difficult. He had had to repeat a year, having had to restart his senior secondary schooling 233
with a new set ofsubjects. Without having finished matric (Grade twelve), he was admitted to a teachers' college, where he spent two years. 3 Ben then joined the teaching profession and studied privately to obtain a matric certificate. He proceeded to study towards a Senior Teaching Certificate, but this was interrupted because he had suffered from a severe stroke. He was forced to abandon his studies at that point. Ben was still undergoing medical treatment at the time ofthis research study. After seven years, he obtained his Senior Teaching Certificate. He had taught for 17 years before leaving teaching to pursue business interests. He returned to teaching after three years having been unsuccessful in his business endeavours. His status at his school was that ofa temporary teacher. Ben was determined to be reinstated as a permanent educator. He was always seen to be keen to please his principal and always addressed him with elaborate respect and humbleness, sometimes resorting to performing tasks for the principal that could be deemed 'inappropriate'. He presented himselfas an enthusiastic person who was keen to be seen to be involved in developing himself. The following extract from my journal (30 July 2003) reflect some ofthe difficulties Ben was experiencing. Over the months that r had come to know Ben, r learned that he was employed in a temporary capacity. He was one of the many teachers who had not been receiving regular monthly salary payments from the state. At one point, Ben had not been paid for a period of five months. It was a particularly difficult time for him since his family had to rely entirely on his wife's income, and assistance from other extended family members. r was amazed that during this period of time, Ben's enthusiasm and optimism never waned. He was always regular at school, very actively involved in leading the establishment of the school library, training the school choir and overseeing school functions. Later in the week, Ben would be the master of ceremonies at a joint schools' function at which the mayor of Durban was the guest of honour. Ben appeared to be a very obliging person, always careful to appear congenial and enthusiastic, especially in the presence of the principal. His tenure at the school was not secure and depended on how strongly the principal motivated for him to remain there. On one occasion r noticed the principal walking to his car with his hands in pockets (off to a meeting). Ben trailed behind him carrying the principal's bag. Reflecting on his own school experience, Ben noted that good teachers were those who were firm disciplinarians especially those who were able to mete out corporal punishment. He felt that corporal punishment that he had received as a pupil 'made him strong'. In his years ofteaching, he had used corporal punishment extensively. Because 3 Welch (2002) reminds us that under apartheid, secondary education for Black students was in fact teacher education. 234
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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observer played themselves out. A c
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organised events and linked communi
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In keeping with ethnographic princi
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In this qualitative study, my inter
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collection. He questions whether co
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physical context, the complex body
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completed, final text: rather, they
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the teacher over classroom events (
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'connoisseurship'. I realised that
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In this study, the criteria for the
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In Chapter One I described the sequ
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tactic by indicating to research pa
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On the occasions that I delivered b
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"Confidentiality involves a clear u
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were cordial and professional. The
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CHAPTER FIVE HOW HAD TEACHER LEARNI
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individual participants changed dif
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He received his schooling under the
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school regularly updated the books
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gone on to become really wealthy. I
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John noted that in planning the cur
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Significant changes had thus occurr
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just transfer it. For example, bank
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Extract from the lesson: John: Pupi
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schoolwork as 'economic work'. This
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John: Now we are not looking at thi
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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
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
Page 235 and 236: they were excellent, really good. I
Page 237 and 238: Extract from first lesson observati
Page 239 and 240: out of the material that they had.
Page 241: largely recall, repetition or were
Page 244 and 245: Third extract from Debbie's second
Page 247: From the above extracts and discuss
Page 251: was three kilometres away from the
Page 254 and 255: In the next extract, Ben referred t
Page 256 and 257: for making bread. The difficulty an
Page 258 and 259: T: P: T: P: T: P: T: Look again. Is
Page 260 and 261: stemmed from a discussion at the TE
Page 263 and 264: Key to the table A = Good/substanti
Page 265 and 266: was doing the budget and where they
Page 267 and 268: ofher school and the TEMS community
Page 269 and 270: Extract from Beth's final interview
Page 271 and 272: fox the invitations and arrange for
Page 273: Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
Page 276 and 277: CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
Page 278 and 279: As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
Page 280 and 281: who did or did not want to become f
Page 283 and 284: The following extract offers a narr
Page 285 and 286: difficulties (ibid.). In the above
Page 287 and 288: A community moves from the potentia
Page 289 and 290: Cindy began the workshop with a tho
Page 291 and 292: oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
Page 293 and 294: 7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
Page 295 and 296: necessary to learn what they needed
Page 297 and 298: 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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