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

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While the thrust ofthe present research study is to examine teacher learning and the influence ofteaching contexts, these issues are explored within the context ofthe new EMS learning area. The next section explores the field ofEconomics education by focussing on the nature ofthe discipline and the pedagogy associated with the discipline. This section locates Economic and Management Sciences in the broader field of commerce, and presents the Department ofEducation's perspective on the new EMS learning area. 2.5 LOCATING ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES IN THE BROADER FIELD OF ECONOMICS EDUCATION EMS is one ofthe eight learning areas included in South Africa's new Revised National Curriculum Statement for the senior phase in the General Education and Training (GET) band. The previous primary school curriculum did not include any commerce related subjects. Apart from a few independent schools and ex-model C schools that attempted to implement elements of entrepreneurship education into the curriculum, public schools in general have had limited or no experience ofcommercial subjects. The EMS learning area is essentially a uniquely South African formulation that draws mainly on the field ofeconomics and includes elements ofthe fields ofmanagement and entrepreneurship. While research has been conducted into the teaching and learning of the traditional primary school disciplines ofMathematics, Science and Languages (Adler and Reed 2002), research in EMS is virtually non-existent. In the absence ofliterature on EMS, this research study drew on literature in the field ofEconomics education as it applied to secondary schools in an attempt to develop a framework with which to locate the core ofthis new learning area. The discussion that ensues thus provides an exposition ofthe literature in the area of Economics education. Research in Economics education may be divided into research on economics teaching and learning at school level and post-school level. Poor student performance in introductory, tertiary economics courses in the United States triggered numerous studies including those by Crawley and Wilton (1974), Bonello, Swartz and 59
Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott (1987), Myatt and Waddle (1990), Tay (1994) and Lopus (1997). In South Africa, research in economics education at post-school level has been confined to mainly quantitative studies, measuring rates ofstudent 'through-put' from one level to the next. The most recent research in the KwaZulu-Natal region was carried out in the former University ofNatal, (Hesketh, Mbali and Mkhize 1994), and in the former University ofDurban-Westville (CEREP 1998). While the scope and research methodology ofeach study was quite different, both were a direct response to alarming failure rates among first year economic students. School-based economics research is basically non-existent in the South Africa context. Academic writing in the area ofeconomics teaching and learning is rare. Journals that carried articles of economic education interest, namely Educamus and an occasional publication called The Commerce Teacher, provided very superficial insights into commerce teaching and were in the main edited by writers who had firm roots in the doctrine ofFundamental Pedagogics (Suransky-Dekker 1998). Maistry (2001) highlights the paucity ofresearch into economics education. Oliver's comment (1975: 13) still holds true for the present South African economics education research context: There has been an embarrassing difference between the rigour and elegance with which economists have written about economics and that which they have thought and written about the teaching of economics. There is much to be proud ofin modem professional economics but less in what is known and published about either economics teaching methods, or the educational role of economics. One particular facet which has had little attention is the nature of economics and how that might affect both teaching methods and the educational functions that the subject is expected to perform. To determine the nature ofa particular form ofknowledge is to determine the assumptions that define a discipline's core. This entails determining the discipline's key concepts. The vehicle involved in the transition from the core vision to the complex events ofthe real world is essentially the methodology ofthe discipline. According to Jeffreys (1987), economic science methodology is essentially a matter ofdeductive 60
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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
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In describing the subject-pedagogy
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teachers lacked content knowledge r
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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 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: staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
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
Page 119 and 120: Ideally I would have wanted teacher
Page 121 and 122: they represent key ingredients in s
Page 123 and 124: 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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