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

ABSTRACT
Conceptualising teacher learning in terms ofparticipation in a teacher learning
community is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa. This study explores the
usefulness of applying a social practice theory oflearning to a community of novice
Economic and Management Sciences teacher learners involved in the Teaching
Economics and Management Sciences (TEMS) teacher development project. It examines
the influence ofcontextual constraints, teachers' biographies and professional career
trajectories on teachers' ability to participate in a learning community. By drawing on
Wenger's theory oflearning in a community ofpractice and Wenger et al's stages of
community development framework, it also illuminates and theorises the potential that a
community ofpractice framework has for teacher development.
Wenger's framework offered important insights that informed and shaped the
development ofthe TEMS programme. It also provided a useful tool for analysing
teacher learning as constituting four components, namely, meaning, practice, identity and
community. The complex relationship that exists between these different components of
learning is examined. The study offers a critique ofthe feasibility and appropriateness of
using Wenger's framework for analysing a teacher learning community.
Methodologically, the tenets ofsymbolic interactionist ethnography were employed in
the collection of data for this study. An exposition ofthe complexity and challenge of
adopting the dual role of researcher as observer and participant is presented. An analysis
11