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

Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in terms of changing professional identities
Teachers' learning in terms of evolving identities
Unchanged Marginal Increasing, Significant,
identity change- notable profound
maintained change in change in
original identity identity
identity
John X
Mary X
Ben X
Kim X
Shirley X
Beth X
Debbie X
In the earlier discussion it was indicated that the implementation ofC2005 in the primary
school had made EMS a compulsory learning area. Teaching EMS was a novel
undertaking for teachers in primary schools. Ofsignificance in the above table is that five
of the seven participating teachers had increasingly begun to align their pedagogic
identities with the EMS learning area.
6.5 A COMPOSITE ILLUSTRATION OF TEMS TEACHERS' LEARNING IN
TERMS OF EVOLVING MEANING, PRACTICE AND IDENTITY
From the discussions in the above sections, it is evident that teacher learning had
occurred, but in varying degrees for different teachers. Learning according to the three
components ofWenger's social practice theory oflearning discussed in this chapter
manifested itselfdifferently for each research participant. While some teachers made
significant shifts in certain components, others presented marginal changes. The table
258