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

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undertaken at her school had helped to subsidise the payment ofthe school water bill. Beth spoke with pride ofthe achievements ofEMS at her school and had begun to identify herself as someone who could lead the development ofEMS at her school and in the surrounding area. MM: In what way, if at all, has your relationship with other EMS teachers, other teachers or your principal changed over the past year? Beth: I take a lead now. I used to ask Ben, usually it was me who used to come and talk to him and ask him for advice. Now I just take the lead, and speak with Ben making suggestions, I even go to the principal on my own and make arrangements for me and Ben to attend. I don't go through my HOD anymore. I can find that even when I got some suggestions like when I said we must run a market day - we spoke to the principal. It was no problem. We had a good market day. We are selling vetkoeks, icecream, beads, juice and lots of things. And then he was so happy because sometimes it happens the parents are not you know, when it comes to paying the school fees, they are not paying quite well and then you will find that the principal is having a problem, maybe water. There is an amount of money that is needed then we had this market day of ours and then the money we just gave it to the principal and he said thank you so much. Beth's changing professional identity can be seen in her increased commitment to developing the EMS curriculum, developing her pupils and contributing to the effective functioning ofher school. Her increased knowledge ofthe EMS learning resulted in her identifying herselfas someone who could contribute as an EMS teacher developer. The evidence suggests that Beth had displayed an 'increasing, notable' shift in her professional identity as a teacher. Extract from final interview with Debbie: Debbie: In the past, Mrs X used to be in charge of EMS at our school. Since she is no longer teaching EMS, I have been playing the leading role here at our school. I'm in charge of EMS at our school now. We've developed our resource files and the other EMS teachers are getting along quite fine now. We discuss our problems with each other. We realised we can do it. We have plans for next year, big plans... You know, before, I used to shy away from admin work, you know, it never attracted me. But now that I'm involved with the workshops, I find myself talking to the principal more often, especially when I need to organise and 255
fox the invitations and arrange for the refreshments and things. I think you just got to learn how to plan and organise yourself properly. You know, nothing misses his eye. He takes note of everything you do. Debbie's evolving professional identity can be seen in the enhanced status she began to enjoy at her school as a result ofthe EMS curriculum development activities that she had begun to assume and her increased involvement in TEMS planning. Debbie had experienced an 'increasing, notable change' in her professional identity. Extract from final interview with Ben: MM: Ben: Do you think that attending these workshops have opened up other opportunities for you in school? Ja, possible, since you know that I'm not a permanent teacher here, maybe the principal, and the teachers will say that this man has attended such workshops and a lot of information is with him, let us just bring him in. It has strengthened my position at the school. With you coming here to our school and inviting US to the workshops, the whole school knows that we are attending and these people are important (smiles), we are taken as that. This learning area is now something in this school. It has got a status. Ben had thus grown in stature and was recognised as someone who was knowledgeable about EMS. He also commented about the increasing 'status' that EMS had begun to enjoy at his school. 6.4.2 A synopsis of Section Three From the above discussion, we see that teachers had begun to identify themselves as EMS teachers and had begun to envisage a future for themselves at their respective schools as EMS teachers. They had begun to think about future plans for EMS teaching at their schools and spoke with increasing self-belief about their ability to make them happen. Their increased involvement in EMS activities had strengthened their positions at their schools. They were beginning to be perceived as becoming increasingly valuable to their schools. In the previous chapter, we saw how John had begun to receive recognition for his role in the TEMS project. He was viewed as a leader in EMS development in his district to the extent that he was invited to present workshops to teachers outside his 256
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
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In the final interview that took pl
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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 and 266: was doing the budget and where they
Page 267 and 268: ofher school and the TEMS community
Page 269: Extract from Beth's final interview
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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Page 316 and 317: As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
Page 318 and 319: 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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