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

America. Goodson (1992) and Calderhead (1993) reflect on the negative effect of
Thatcherism on 'socially curious' educational research in Britain and the conservative
patterns of educational reform that emerged during the Reagan administration. They
argue that the emergence ofconservative politics rapidly affected the context of
educational research. The direct effect was the marginalisation ofstudies on the context
ofteachers' work because ofthe withdrawal offunding opportunities for this type of
research. Research during this period viewed teachers as thinkers and as researchers.
Dominant research emphases were on life history research, teachers' thinking and
decision-making, action research, and collaborative research. Prominent researchers
within this tradition included Zeichner (1987), Alrichter, (1986), Carr and Kemmis
(1986) and Calderhead (1987).
In the 1990s teachers began to be framed as complex, contradictory individuals.
Educational research illuminated the complexity ofpostmodern society, knowledge, and
the rapidly changing social context. Prominent researchers in the field included Kennedy
(1991), Goodson (1992), Knowles (1992), Freeman (1996) and Johnson (1996).
Reflection on the research on teaching since the 1960s thus reveals a constant change in
the perspectives on the role and identity ofthe teacher. As we have seen above, the 1960s
viewed the teacher as a villain, accountable for pupil underachievement. This view was
altered in the 1970s with teachers being regarded as victims ofthe context in which they
operate. The 1980s witnessed teachers being elevated to the status ofindividual thinkers
and researchers, and in the 1990s, researchers started to acknowledge teachers as
complex and contradictory individuals.
The purpose ofpresenting this briefoverview ofthe research patterns and trends is to
locate the present study within this broad frame. The study has much in common with
research carried out by researchers during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and it is for this
reason that the exposition ofkey concepts used in this study will be drawn from research
carried out during this period. A prominent research paradigm during this period was
symbolic interactionism.
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