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

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Symbolic interactionism offered a 'demanding and extensive' programme ofwork for sociologists, yet it seemed to have been eclipsed before much ofthe programme could be realised (Hargreaves 1993). The movement ofmainstream sociology (at the time) towards Marxist perspectives (which shifted the focus ofeducational research towards 'macro' approaches), the development ofphenomenology and ethnomethodology and the influence ofconservative political undercurrents were key reasons for symbolic interactionism going'out offashion'. Yet the merits of symbolic interactionism endow it with lasting relevance: "if it can realise its own potential, symbolic interactionism has an assured future in the vast sociological enterprise, whatever changes in fashion it may encounter" (Hargreaves 1993: 150). 2.4 ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO 'TEACHER STRATEGIES' The following section provides an exposition ofthe research concept (symbolic interactionism) and a discussion ofrelated concepts such as context, culture and strategies that have direct relevance for this study. Symbolic interactionist research entails conducting research by observation and participation and not by testing, measuring and experimenting. It is a study offace-to-face interaction and it attempts to understand social action from the perspectives of social actors themselves as opposed to developing theories in general. Symbolic interactionists share a theory or a set oftheories that derive in the main from the work ofG.H. Mead (Delamont 1976). Human action is largely symbolic, which means it involves interpretation. When people interact, each person is constantly interpreting her own and other acts, reacting, and interpreting and redefining the situation. The human being is a constructor ofher own action and though guided by culturally influenced perspectives, still carries the essence ofindividuality. W.!. Thomas's often-quoted phrase cited in Woods (1980:20) states that: "Ifmen define situations as real, they are real in their consequences". What this means is that it is the interpretation ofreality that is important because ofits effects on thoughts and evaluations ofsituations. People interact through symbols, that is, stimuli that have 53
learned meaning and value for them (Woods 1983:1). The shared meaning ofmany of these symbols facilitates interaction between people. Often, different individuals interpret situations differently and in the school context, while school may be a 'joyful and liberating arena' to some people, to others it may appear 'dull and restrictive'. One possible reason for this is that some participants have more power than others and may be able to enforce their definition ofthe situation on others (Delamont 1976). A central interactionist construct is 'context'. A context is a situation that is constructed as a result ofpeople's interactions and interpretations ofthe symbols around them (Woods 1983). Irrespective ofthe 'prevailing official definition' ofwhat the context is, or what the circumstances are, an individual's definition ofthe context derives from her personal interpretation ofwhat appears to be real to her. Schools may have a range of different contexts and people's interpretations have been shown to differ among them (see Wickham 1998; Wedekind 1995; Reeves 1997). Because contexts are constructed, it is the task ofthe interactionist to discover how they were constructed, and not to take them for granted (ibid.). Context is more than just the place where something happens; it also has an influence on what happens. The concept ofsignificance to this study is the one ofstrategies, and for this reason a more elaborated discussion ofthis concept is provided. The germinal work ofJackson (1968), Lortie (1975) and Delamont (1976) triggered an overwhelming interest in classroom-based research and significantly influenced the work ofresearchers like Woods (1979, 1980, 1983), Lacey (1977) and Pollard (1982) who specifically investigated the area ofteacher strategies. The concept of 'strategy' is derived from interactionist theory (Woods 1980). Strategies are ways ofachieving goals. They are pedagogical mechanisms or devices formulated by teachers to deal with the difficulties under which they work. They are patterns of 'repeatable acts' designed to serve 'long term' rather than 'short term' objectives, and are linked to broad general aims (Woods 1980). "It has been shown that there is a major disjunction between what people say and what people do ... because ofan inevitable 54
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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
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ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
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Observation ofJohn's teaching after
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A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
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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 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: America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
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
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
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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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