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

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\ "sustained pursuit ofa shared enterprise" (ibid.:45). These kinds of communities are called communities ofpractice. \ Working with others who share the same conditions is a central factor in defining the enterprise one engages with. A community ofpractice: 1. Provides resolutions to institutionally generated conflicts 2. Supports a communal memory that allows individuals to do their work without needing to know everything 3. Helps newcomers join the community by participating in its practice 4. Generates specific perspectives and terms to enable accomplishing what needs to be done 5. Makes the job habitable by creating an atmosphere in which the monotonous and meaningless aspects ofthe job are woven into the rituals, customs, stories, events, dramas and rhythms ofcommunity life (Wenger 1998:46). Individuals"... act as resources to each other, exchanging information, making sense of situations, sharing new tricks and new ideas, ..." (ibid.:47). A practice is what people (in this research study, teachers in TEMS) have developed in order to be able to do their jobs and have a satisfying experience at work. The concept practice entails doing in a historical and social context that gives structure and meaning to what is done. Practice is essentially a social practice. It includes both the explicit and the tacit and ... encompasses the language, tools, documents, images, symbols, well-defined roles, specified criteria, codified procedures, regulations and contracts that various practices make explicit for a variety ofpurposes (Wenger 1998:47). Implicit relations and tacit conventions are important signs ofcommunities ofpractice. The tacit, taken for granted or common sense can be worked out through mutual engagement in communities ofpractice. The concept practice and the process of engaging in practice always "involves the whole person, both knowing and acting at once" (ibid.:48). Communities ofpractice include the theoretical, and the practical, one's ideals and the reality, and both talking, doing and 83
eflecting. The ability of a community ofpractice to be reflective will influence the kind oflearning that the community will engage in. In pursuing our different enterprises, our practice will always involve"... the same kind of embodied, delicate, active, social, negotiated, complex process ofparticipation" (ibid.:49). 3.3.2.2 Practice as Meaning , Practice is a process by which we can experience the world and our engagement with it as meaningful. It is about meaning as an experience ofdaily life. Meaning is located in a process called the negotiation ofmeaning. Our engagement in practice may have patterns, but it is the production ofpatterns anew that gives rise to an experience of meaning (Wenger 1998). Human engagement in the world is first and foremost a process ofnegotiating meaning. The negotiation ofmeaning may involve language but is not limited to it. Negotiation entails a continuous interaction, ofgradual achievement, and of give and take. "The negotiation ofmeaning is a productive process, but negotiating meaning is not constructing it from scratch" (ibid.:54). Meaning is a product ofits negotiation and therefore exists in the process ofnegotiation. The negotiation ofmeaning involves the interaction oftwo constituent processes, which Wenger refers to as participation and reification. Participation and reification form a duality that is fundamental to the human experience and thus to the nature ofpractice (Wenger 1998:52). Participation and reification refer to a duality that is fundamental to the negotiation ofmeaning. Participation refers to a complex process ofdoing, talking, thinking, feeling and belonging. It involves our whole person, including our bodies, minds, emotions and social relations. Participation is characterized by the possibility of mutual recognition, our mutual ability to negotiate meaning. It is a source ofidentity. By recognising the mutuality of our participation, we become a part of each other. Participation involves all kinds ofrelationships such as conflictual and harmonious relationships. Participation in social communities shapes our experience and it also shapes those communities. It is more than just direct engagement in specific activities with specific people. It is a part ofour identity that influences the negotiation ofmeaning 84
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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
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some formal Mathematics teacher edu
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study, the coordination functions w
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It foregrounds the fact that the co
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school. Higher education opportunit
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frame models for projecting future
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teacher education by the state, (as
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schools, classrooms, management and
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Although the Teacher Audit indicate
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One ofthe first curriculum reform i
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entrenched design feature of C2005,
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In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
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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
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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: Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
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
Page 125 and 126: more useful and effective than part
Page 127 and 128: 3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
Page 129 and 130: • While my professional input int
Page 131 and 132: • Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
Page 133 and 134: observer played themselves out. A c
Page 135 and 136: organised events and linked communi
Page 137 and 138: In keeping with ethnographic princi
Page 139 and 140: In this qualitative study, my inter
Page 141 and 142: collection. He questions whether co
Page 143 and 144: physical context, the complex body
Page 145 and 146: completed, final text: rather, they
Page 147 and 148: 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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