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

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continuing professional development, they also sometimes complicate our understanding ofthe process. Because writers operate from differing perspectives, research findings are seldom mutually informing and are often contradictory (Bolam and McMahon 2004). There is no universal definition ofa professional learning community (Hord 1997). Although there exists little evidence ofthe impact of continuing professional development on policy and practice, teacher development programmes continue to be introduced throughout the world (Bolam and McMahon 2004). The critical question in this research study seeks to examine the nature ofteachers' learning in relation to their participation in a teacher learning community. Teacher development through participation in teacher learning communities is a relatively new phenomenon in South African teacher education. Graven (2002) notes that literature analysing teacher learning in learning communities is relatively new and needs further development. However, international research into teacher learning communities, particularly in the United States, has highlighted the potential that teacher learning communities have for teacher development. Wesley and Buysse (2001:120) remind us that we have much to learn about how we "... might transform traditional views of teaching and learning (in which practitioners are viewed as recipients ofknowledge) into learning communities (in which practitioners are viewed as co-producers ofknowledge)". They suggest that designers ofprofessional development programmes should take the lead in developing communities ofpractice 'from the ground' and should ideally incorporate diverse expertise to bring together research, policy, and practices in a way that is most meaningful to all participants. Although the notion ofteachers collaborating to improve practice is not new, the study of collaborative processes engaged in by teachers and other professionals has recently attracted the interest ofresearchers. However, much more research is needed to systematically determine the potential ofcommunities ofpractice for learning (Wideman and Owston 2003). 31
As indicated in the previous chapter, the Graven study (Graven 2002) has a distinct significance for the current study as it represents the only local investigation into the workings ofa teacher learning community, using Wenger's theoretical framework as a framework for analysis. Graven set out to investigate mathematics teacher learning in relation to teacher participation in an INSET programme. The study highlighted the tensions inherent in curriculum design, in particular the tensions in the design ofthe new Mathematics curriculum, the impact ofthese tensions on teachers learning about the new Mathematics curriculum and the challenges that such changes presented. An examination of the new pedagogic and mathematical roles inherent in the new curriculum and the adoption ofthese roles by teachers in relation to their changing practices and the development ofnew identities were also explored. The study revealed that teacher learning in terms ofWenger's four components oflearning, namely, meaning, practice, identity and community, had occurred for all teachers. Graven proceeded to theorize the notion of 'confidence' as a further, fifth component oflearning that appeared to be grounded in the data that emerged. Confidence was conceptualised as 'learning as mastery' (ibid.). The study showed that teachers' participation in the community of practice entailed a complex intersection ofall five components oflearning. It raised several key issues concerning teacher development, including the importance of acknowledging the transformatory context ofcurriculum change, long-term work with teachers, locating INSET activities within a community ofpractice, developing teachers' mathematical identities, a focus on lifelong learning in INSET, the benefits ofracially integrated learning communities, and the importance ofproviding access to resources. The focus ofthe next section is an analysis ofthe concepts 'teacher learning' and 'learning community', and a reflection on the literature on teacher learning communities as potential vehicles for facilitating teacher development. 2.2.1 A situative conception of teacher learning Learning in general, and teacher learning in particular, can mean different things depending on one's conceptual perspective (Spillane 2000). It is therefore necessary, for 32
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 and 28: It foregrounds the fact that the co
Page 29 and 30: school. Higher education opportunit
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: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
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
Page 85 and 86: (Walford 2001; Anderson 1999). With
Page 87 and 88: • It places value on the research
Page 89 and 90: The main research question in this
Page 91 and 92: Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
Page 93 and 94: 3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
Page 95 and 96: agree with the way it takes place o
Page 97 and 98:
Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
Page 99 and 100:
eflecting. The ability of a communi
Page 101 and 102:
object to something that in reality
Page 103 and 104:
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
Page 109 and 110:
new possibilities for meaning. Brok
Page 111 and 112:
These characteristics indicate that
Page 113 and 114:
engage with one another and acknowl
Page 115 and 116:
A structural model ofa community of
Page 117 and 118:
who were regarded as peripheral. A
Page 119 and 120:
Ideally I would have wanted teacher
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they represent key ingredients in s
Page 123 and 124:
that the Wenger framework presents
Page 125 and 126:
more useful and effective than part
Page 127 and 128:
3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
Page 129 and 130:
• While my professional input int
Page 131 and 132:
• Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
Page 133 and 134:
observer played themselves out. A c
Page 135 and 136:
organised events and linked communi
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In keeping with ethnographic princi
Page 139 and 140:
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
Page 158 and 159:
On the occasions that I delivered b
Page 160 and 161:
"Confidentiality involves a clear u
Page 163 and 164:
were cordial and professional. The
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CHAPTER FIVE HOW HAD TEACHER LEARNI
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individual participants changed dif
Page 169 and 170:
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
Page 175 and 176:
John noted that in planning the cur
Page 177 and 178:
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
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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
Page 206 and 207:
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
Page 224 and 225:
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
Page 237 and 238:
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
Page 258 and 259:
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
Page 267 and 268:
ofher school and the TEMS community
Page 269 and 270:
Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
Page 273:
Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
Page 276 and 277:
CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
Page 278 and 279:
As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
Page 283 and 284:
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
Page 291 and 292:
oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
Page 293 and 294:
7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
Page 295 and 296:
necessary to learn what they needed
Page 297 and 298:
Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
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the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
Page 301 and 302:
knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
Page 303 and 304:
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
Page 309 and 310:
Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
Page 311:
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
Page 318 and 319:
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
Page 326 and 327:
for the purposes ofprofessional dev
Page 328 and 329:
teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
Page 330 and 331:
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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