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

CHAPTER EIGHT
SYNTHESIS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
8.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides a synthesis ofthe analysis and arguments developed thus far and
outlines the implications ofthis study. It also documents the limitations ofthe study and
highlights areas ofresearch that need further investigation. A vast literature on the
continuing professional development of teachers exists. As a way of containing the
discussion, I will draw primarily on the influential work ofHargreaves (1995) for an
international perspective and on Christie et al (2004) for insights into continuing
professional development in developing countries.
8.2 A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDY
The critical question in this research study sought to examine the nature ofteacher
learning in relation to their participation in a teacher learning community. A review ofthe
literature on teacher development revealed that, while research on teacher development in
the US and UK highlighted the potential ofteacher learning communities for teacher
development, teacher development through participation in teacher learning communities
was a relatively new phenomenon in South African teacher education, and certainly one
that warranted further development. As mentioned earlier, the work ofGraven (2002)
represents the only significant South African study that analysed the workings of a
teacher learning community using 'communities ofpractice' as a theoretical framework.
The value ofadopting a situative perspective on teacher learning was that this perspective
focuses researchers' attention on how various settings for teachers' learning give rise to
different kinds ofknowing. This perspective attempts to recast the relationship between
what people know and the settings in which they know. The contexts in which people
learn, and in which they are assessed, are inextricable elements in their knowledge. A
discussion ofthe symbolic interactionist concepts of 'context' and 'strategies' in the
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