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

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Extract from final interview with Mary: Mary: I just want to thank you for giving me this opportunity of participating in the programme. I enjoyed it. I know I have grown a hell of a lot. And I enjoy anything new. For me my time was no problem because I am happy to do it, any time in the future as well. And if you need any kind of assistance you will be most welcome. I've had my difficult times as a teacher. I won't say that I haven't been through the mill. I have, but I just have to keep reminding myself that I am here for the children. They are the most important. And that's your purpose for being here so you focus on that. And every morning when I enter the school gate I tell myself that I'm here for the children and I try to do my best. There's a lot that goes on and sometimes you can't cut yourself away from it, but you have to qUickly refocus. If you remember that it's the child that should get priority then it becomes so much easier to handle everything else. I've been here too long - twenty five years at one school is much too long. Mary had shifted from being a peripheral member ofthe TEMS community to becoming a core member. Her changing professional identity as a teacher was evidenced by her commitment to the TEMS teacher development programme, its administration, planning and its curriculum. Her willingness to embark on curriculum development activities in EMS revealed a distinct shift in her identity as an increasing knowledgeable EMS teacher. Mary's evolving professional identity can be categorised as displaying 'increasing, notable change'. Extract from Kim's initial interview: MM: Kim: Okay, can I get into the EMS issue? How wi 11 you describe your knowledge of EMS, your knowledge of the subject matter? Not, not good. I really need to get more back up here. It was not my choice to teach thiS subject. What can I do? (Participant was uncomfortable with the question and was insecure about her knowledge of EMS). In Kim's first interview, she expressed anxiety about teaching EMS and mentioned that she needed much help with the learning area. Her participation in the TEMS programme resulted in her developing a changed perception ofherself. She had also developed an elevated status in the eyes ofother EMS teachers. In the extract from Kim's final interview, she mentioned how she had become a source ofinformation to people outside 251
ofher school and the TEMS community. When placed in the position of someone 'in the know' she was able to explain what she had learnt. She did concede that she felt she was still not sufficiently competent to run a workshop on her own. Wenger (1998) notes that new identities are forged from new perspectives that may have either an unsettling or an encouraging effect on participants. He notes that this process could reveal progress, which may have remained, previously unnoticed. TEMS teachers (old-timers) suddenly see all that they have learned because they are now in a position to help other teachers. These shifts also created new demands as participants are suddenly being looked up to and are expected to know more than they are sure they do. Ofsignificance was Kim's changed attitude towards the project and towards her teaching ofEMS. She appeared to be content to continue to teach EMS the following year and wanted to take her pupils to 'new heights'. Kim: In fact we have many teachers in our family and I share the material with them, even close friends in my husband's school. Some of them heard that I'm attending these workshops, now they come to me for stuff. It's interesting because I then try to explain how we approach EMS in our workshops. Suddenly they're treating me like I know everything... With EMS I think I need to do a lot more before I can conduct a workshop on my own. For next year, I would like to see the project continue, I need more gUidance, I'd like to take my children to new heights with EMS next year. In the extract below, Kim explained that she wanted EMS to make up a larger part ofher workload for the next year. She had developed a preference for teaching EMS as opposed to teaching a variety ofother subjects. At the same time, she had become'a little bit more confident' and had also developed the ability to be able to focus on what she wanted to teach her pupils. Extract from final interview with Kim Kim: I want to do more EMS next year. I would like to focus on EMS next year, instead of doing a whole lot of different subjects that I don't enjoy. 252
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
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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
Page 216 and 217: In the final interview that took pl
Page 218 and 219: MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
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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 and 248: From the above extracts and discuss
Page 249 and 250: with a new set ofsubjects. Without
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: was doing the budget and where they
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
Page 299 and 300: the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
Page 301 and 302: knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
Page 303 and 304: MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
Page 305 and 306: The following extract from a worksh
Page 307 and 308: MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
Page 309 and 310: Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
Page 311: Soudien, a leading South African ac
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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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