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

strongly enough in the data generated by the present study for it to have received further
exploration.
Although Wenger's framework provided a useful tool for an analysis oflearning as
constituting these four components, these components and the changes that had taken
place within them were inextricably linked to one another. An intricate relationship
between the components existed. Although each component oflearning had been
analysed separately, they were in fact interconnected in a complex way. A discussion of
this complex relationship follows.
In terms ofWenger's first component, 'meaning' namely, 'learning as experience', the
study has elucidated the changing understandings and meanings (changing ability) ofthe
TEMS participants with regard to EMS and EMS teaching as a result ofparticipation in
the TEMS community ofpractice. Teacher learning had in fact taken place. Teachers
had begun to experience the new EMS curriculum as meaningful. While some degree of
uncertainty still existed, these uncertainties were not as pronounced as at the
commencement ofthe programme. With regard to teachers' understandings ofEMS, it
was evident that teachers had experienced definite shifts in their content knowledge and
pedagogic content knowledge base.
With regard to 'practice' namely, 'learning as doing', the study illuminated teachers'
changing practices in relation to EMS teaching. In an analysis oftwo teachers who
presented the greatest differences on the learning continuum, the narrative vignettes of
both teachers provided evidence that teacher biographies, career trajectories and other
contextual factors interact to affect the nature ofteacher learning, in particular, their
ability to make meaning ofthe new EMS curriculum as well as their dispositions towards
their EMS classroom practice. All participating teachers had experienced changes in their
practice.
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