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

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school staff development workshops or gatherings where teachers within a discipline meet to discuss issues. Other group formations may take place within disciplines or grades but across schools within a particular geographical area. In a study of voluntary groupings ofteachers, Clark recognized that professional conversation is the key to enhancing teachers' learning and that "authentic conversation" occurs when topics arise out ofteachers' concerns about their work (Clark 2001: 177). "Authentic conversation is about making sense ofand articulating our own experiences, implicit theories, hopes, and fears, in the intellectual and emotional company ofothers whom we trust" (ibid.). Clark concludes that developing trust and generating authentic conversations only happen over an extended period oftime (ibid.). Learning communities have to go through an initial phase which Grossman et al (2001:955) call a 'pseudocommunity'. They explain the concept 'pseudocommunity' as a situation in which participants 'play community', that is, they act as ifthey are already a community that shares values and beliefs. Participants are congenial and friendly and sensitive not to intrude on issues ofpersonal space. There is a definite attempt to suppress conflict, by not overtly challenging each other, thereby creating illusions ofconsensus. Because there is no rigour in discussions, participants "speak at high levels ofgenerality that allows each to impute his or her own meaning to the group's abstractions" (Grossman et al2001 :955). Participants perform identities that generally reflect positively on them. Other participants may try to achieve the aim ofpresenting themselves as victims who, through the expression of incompetence, seek the group's sympathy. Interactions in a pseudocommunity operate smoothly as long as each participant gets to play the role she wants without being challenged. The smooth functioning ofa pseudocommunity is challenged when participants meet more often and for longer periods for time. When this happens, individual participants' authenticity begins to be questioned (ibid.). 45
Differences in the cultures oflearning communities influence the ways that teachers respond to their participation in such communities (Galluci 2003). In strong communities ofpractice, teachers worked closely with each other and had a strong influence on each other's practice, whereas in weak communities ofpractice, teachers had much less influence on each other's practice (ibid.). Through in-depth case studies in the corporate world, Wenger, McDermott and Snyder identified categories and roles that participants in a community ofpractice may adopt. Participants fit into several categories and assume various roles within the communities ofpractice, such as, a coordinator, who organises events and links community members; a core group ofactive participants who assume leadership roles; an active group of frequent but not regular participants; and peripheral participants, members who occasionally take part, and 'lurkers' who learn from observation (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder 2002). The development of communities ofpractice is an evolutionary process that occurs in phases (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder 2002). The Potential phase is the initial phase in the development ofa community ofpractice and typically begins when people face similar circumstances, dilemmas or challenges without the benefit of shared practice, but a situation in which they perceive the benefit ofworking with each other. In the second phase, namely, the Coalescing phase, members come to recognize the potential of working together and begin to explore how to accomplish this. In the Maturing phase (third phase), the community ofpractice becomes firmly entrenched as members engage in joint activities, create artefacts, and adapt to changing circumstances. The Stewardship phase (fourth phase) is characterised by members no longer as intensely engaged, but the community is still strong and members stay in touch, hold get-togethers and call each other for advice. In the final stage, namely, the Transformation phase, activity wanes and participants remember it as a significant part oftheir identities, often attempting to preserve artefacts, collecting memorabilia and telling stories (ibid.). 46
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Teacher Learning in a Community of
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ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
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DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
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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 and 46: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
Page 47 and 48: As indicated in the previous chapte
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: change. She highlights the importan
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
Page 105 and 106: system or institution and the influ
Page 107 and 108: 3.3.2.4 Learning Practice has to be
Page 109 and 110: new possibilities for meaning. Brok
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These characteristics indicate that
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engage with one another and acknowl
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A structural model ofa community of
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who were regarded as peripheral. A
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Ideally I would have wanted teacher
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they represent key ingredients in s
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that the Wenger framework presents
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more useful and effective than part
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3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
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• While my professional input int
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• Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
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observer played themselves out. A c
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organised events and linked communi
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In keeping with ethnographic princi
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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
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On the occasions that I delivered b
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"Confidentiality involves a clear u
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were cordial and professional. The
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CHAPTER FIVE HOW HAD TEACHER LEARNI
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individual participants changed dif
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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
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John noted that in planning the cur
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Significant changes had thus occurr
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just transfer it. For example, bank
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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
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John: Now I want you to remember wh
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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
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As stated earlier, because the 'con
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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
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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
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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
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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
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ofher school and the TEMS community
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Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
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Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
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CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
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As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
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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
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oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
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7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
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necessary to learn what they needed
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Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
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the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
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knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
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MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
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The following extract from a worksh
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MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
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Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
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Soudien, a leading South African ac
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hand, adopts a 'narrow' perspective
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As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
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literature review revealed that the
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Another important feature ofWenger'
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'Identity' namely, 'learning as bec
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(Hargreaves 1995). Teacher professi
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for the purposes ofprofessional dev
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teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
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knowledge of subject content is ser
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South Africa, due cognisance must b
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8.3.7 An arena for engaging and con
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the provision of appropriate profes
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level conceptual thinking". They wa
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Collaboration within teacher learni
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has for teacher learning in a South
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Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
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Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
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Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
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Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
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Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
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Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
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APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
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2. What information have you been g
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APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
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APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
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