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

staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher role in the classroom (Woods 1980: 19). The work of
Keddie (1983) supports this argument. She introduced the concepts of 'educationist
context' - what teachers as professionals believe at an idealistic theoretica11evel - and
'teacher context' - the conditions and constraints they have to cope with in practice - and
asserts that there is a disjuncture between the two contexts. She further argues that
teachers in their position ofpower (in classrooms) perpetuate and maintain the social
order by dictating what counts as acceptable knowledge. Pupils who can master subject
knowledge as prescribed by societal structures and presented by teachers can attain
success in such a system. Hammersley (cited in Woods 1983) states that knowledge and
ability are finnly related to the school framework and there is no universal agreement on
their definition.
It becomes clear that the constraints ofthe context under which teachers work create
challenges for teachers' practice. A "complete understanding ofteaching is not possible
without an understanding ofthe constraints and opportunities that impinge upon the
teaching process" (Clark and Peterson 1986:258). External influences such as the
curriculum, the community and internal constraints such as the physical setting, and
resource availability significantly affect teachers' actions. Teachers' thought processes
may be similarly constrained because ofreduced flexibility in their planning arising from
curriculum decisions that may have already been made by education authorities. The
challenge for teacher development then is to develop innovative teacher education
programmes that empower and enable teachers to offer the official curriculum despite the
constraints ofthe contexts in which they work.
58