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

the provision of appropriate professional development events and processes ... follow up the
effects ofthese on teachers' thinking and practice...(Day 1999: 171).
In addition to the crucial issue ofeffectiveness, communities ofpractice also offer
opportunities for increased democratisation of the research process. This could include
gathering ofdata, interpretation and sharing findings. There needs to be a shift on the part
ofthe professional development sector from working on to working with teachers and the
world ofpractice.
Day (1999: 186) draws attention to the distinction between co-operation and
collaboration in school-university partnerships and reminds us that collaboration
"involves joint decision-making, requires time, careful negotiation, trust and effective
communication... where both parties regard themselves as learners". Co-operation on the
other hand entails definitive roles and power relationships where university experts
conduct professional development and where little mutual learning is likely to occur. The
challenge then is whether the field ofteacher education is ready to move towards
acknowledging and accepting the conceptual analyses and interpretive knowledge of
teachers as part ofa redefined knowledge base rather than the traditional approach to
discovering new knowledge in the field ofteacher education. There is a need to challenge
the linear 'trickle down' model ofteacher development as it currently exists, an idea also
supported by Wesley and Buysse who suggest that teachers have to be acknowledged as
knowledge producers (Wesley and Buysse 2001). Day (1999) notes that for learning to be
successful, there has to be collaboration over an extended period oftime between
teachers and outside individuals who may be able to complement the practical knowledge
held by teachers.
From the above discussion, it becomes clear that teacher education providers need to
explore the possibility of forming university and 'community' partnerships that could
provide richer and more meaningful experiences for in-service teachers through relevant
teacher education programmes. Communities ofpractice as a theoretical approach to the
problem ofreform implementation suggest that learning is occurring in practice. This
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