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

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The data analysis will reveal that teacher learning had occurred for all participants in the TEMS teacher learning community, but that learning had occurred along different trajectories in respect ofthe four components ofWenger's social practice theory of learning, namely: meaning, practice, identity and community. 1.3 THE SOUTH AFRICAN TEACHER DEVELOPMENT LANDSCAPE POST 1994: A BRIEF OVERVIEW The history of education and teacher education in South Africa up to 1994 has been well documented (e.g. see Welch 2002, Parker 2002). For the purposes of this research report, attention is focused on the teacher development landscape since 1994. Irrespective ofthe country concerned, educational reform is seen as "critical to repairing, redressing, professionalising and changing current educational practices" (Adler 2002). Adler notes that this is particularly true of current South African educational change. In 1994, the first democratically elected government was elected in South Africa. One of the most challenging aspects ofits enormous task was to contend with a "segregated, fragmented authoritarian, dangerously unequal and inefficient education system" (Welch 2002:23). The post-liberation government was confronted with many dilemmas and hard choices in its efforts to transform apartheid education. It had inherited a complex education system comprising 18 education departments that serviced the different provinces, homelands and race groups. These 18 education departments were responsible for 105 colleges ofeducation. In addition, there were 32 autonomous universities and technikons. The teacher education system was thus scattered, fragmented, expensive, and characterised by marked discrepancies in costs across different institutions. For the majority Black population of South Africa, limited o,pportunities had existed for secondary or tertiary education after completing basic education. The success rate at secondary school level was low, with few Black students successfully completing high 13
school. Higher education opportunity for many Black students was limited to 'teaching or preaching'. "Teacher education was thus a strategic response to the lack ofhigher educational opportunities for the black population" (Sayed 2004:248). In many instances, secondary education was in fact teacher education (Welch 2002). South African education thus finds itselfin a peculiar situation. It is forced to embrace the curriculum reform agenda in a context that still manifests gross inequalities in society and education provision. There is an urgent need for redress in education especially in previously disadvantaged institutions. The advent ofthe new democratic state signalled the need for radical educational policy changes. Adler accurately captures the vision and philosophy that was envisaged for South African education as follows: Curriculum (content, pedagogy and assessment) was to shift from fragmentation to integration, from low-order to high-order knowledge and skills, and from rote learning to active, critical engagement. Teachers were identified as key agents of change, pointing to significant and necessary roles for INSET in the new orientations to knowledge and pedagogy (Adler 2002:6). Despite noble policy intention, however, there are indications that radical change is not easy to achieve in practice. For example, Harley and Wedekind (2004) argue that while recent policy (C2005) may reflect the social and political vision ofthe 'new' South African state, there is little evidence that such a vision is anywhere close to being achieved. What is becoming more apparent though is the reproduction ofsocial class divisions in South African society. Policy and practice in teacher education in South Africa is thus fraught with complexity, contradiction, and faces numerous dilemmas. Teacher shortages as result ofthe 'rationalising' ofteacher training institutions and the effect ofthe AIDS epidemic are serious issues that South African education has to contend with. 14
Page 1 and 2: Teacher Learning in a Community of
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
Page 5 and 6: DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
Page 7 and 8: DECLARATION I, Suriamurthee Moonsam
Page 9 and 10: ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
Page 11 and 12: Observation ofJohn's teaching after
Page 13 and 14: A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
Page 15 and 16: TEMS RNCS EMS GET DoE INSET ELRC SA
Page 17 and 18: In describing the subject-pedagogy
Page 19 and 20: teachers lacked content knowledge r
Page 21 and 22: acknowledges the importance and pec
Page 23 and 24: some formal Mathematics teacher edu
Page 25 and 26: study, the coordination functions w
Page 27: It foregrounds the fact that the co
Page 31 and 32: frame models for projecting future
Page 33 and 34: teacher education by the state, (as
Page 35 and 36: schools, classrooms, management and
Page 37 and 38: Although the Teacher Audit indicate
Page 39 and 40: One ofthe first curriculum reform i
Page 41 and 42: entrenched design feature of C2005,
Page 43 and 44: In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
Page 45 and 46: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
Page 47 and 48: As indicated in the previous chapte
Page 49 and 50: This view is supported by Putman an
Page 51 and 52: Learning is social in nature (Putma
Page 53 and 54: Constant reflection on and understa
Page 55 and 56: Teachers drew on their membership i
Page 57 and 58: The above arguments about the lack
Page 59 and 60: change. She highlights the importan
Page 61 and 62: Differences in the cultures oflearn
Page 63 and 64: persons and is not considered solel
Page 65 and 66: and offers insights into how learni
Page 67 and 68: America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
Page 69 and 70: learned meaning and value for them
Page 71 and 72: 'accommodation' and intimates that
Page 73 and 74: staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
Page 75 and 76: Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
Page 77 and 78: directive in that it guides choices
Page 79 and 80:
economic discourse, the economics p
Page 81 and 82:
• Understand and promote the impo
Page 83 and 84:
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
Page 89 and 90:
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
Page 97 and 98:
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
Page 181 and 182:
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
Page 189 and 190:
John: Now I want you to remember wh
Page 191 and 192:
John succeeded in drawing on the sp
Page 193:
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
Page 209 and 210:
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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the little things like we started i
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understandings and conceptions ofth
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Extract from Mary's final interview
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Teachers were able to describe the
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The essential differences between D
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Debbie's school, Eden Primary was l
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what he's saying. And in that lesso
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they were excellent, really good. I
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Extract from first lesson observati
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out of the material that they had.
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largely recall, repetition or were
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Third extract from Debbie's second
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From the above extracts and discuss
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with a new set ofsubjects. Without
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was three kilometres away from the
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In the next extract, Ben referred t
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for making bread. The difficulty an
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T: P: T: P: T: P: T: Look again. Is
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stemmed from a discussion at the TE
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Key to the table A = Good/substanti
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was doing the budget and where they
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ofher school and the TEMS community
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Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
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Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
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CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
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As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
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The following extract offers a narr
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difficulties (ibid.). In the above
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A community moves from the potentia
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Cindy began the workshop with a tho
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oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
Page 293 and 294:
7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
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necessary to learn what they needed
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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
Page 305 and 306:
The following extract from a worksh
Page 307 and 308:
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
Page 316 and 317:
As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
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literature review revealed that the
Page 320 and 321:
Another important feature ofWenger'
Page 322 and 323:
'Identity' namely, 'learning as bec
Page 324 and 325:
(Hargreaves 1995). Teacher professi
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for the purposes ofprofessional dev
Page 328 and 329:
teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
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knowledge of subject content is ser
Page 332 and 333:
South Africa, due cognisance must b
Page 334 and 335:
8.3.7 An arena for engaging and con
Page 336 and 337:
the provision of appropriate profes
Page 338 and 339:
level conceptual thinking". They wa
Page 340 and 341:
Collaboration within teacher learni
Page 342 and 343:
has for teacher learning in a South
Page 344 and 345:
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
Page 346 and 347:
Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
Page 348 and 349:
Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
Page 350 and 351:
Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
Page 352 and 353:
Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
Page 354 and 355:
Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
Page 356 and 357:
APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
Page 358 and 359:
2. What information have you been g
Page 360 and 361:
APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
Page 362:
APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
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