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

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3.3.2.6 How does Wenger use the concept 'locality'? Calling "every imaginable social configuration a community ofpractice would render the concept meaningless. On the other hand, encumbering the concept with too restrictive a definition will only make it less useful" (Wenger 1998:122). It is more important to explore the perspective that underlies the concept 'practice' and to develop a framework by which to examine to what degree, in which ways, and to what purpose it is useful to view a social configuration as a community ofpractice. Because a community ofpractice need not be reified as such in the discourse ofits participants, indicators that a community ofpractice has developed include: 1. sustained mutual relationships - harmonious or conflictua1 2. shared ways ofengaging in doing things together 3. the rapid flow ofinformation and the propagation ofinnovation 4. absence ofintroductory preambles, as ifconversations and interactions were merely the continuation ofan ongoing process. 5. very quick setup of a problem to be involved 6. substantial overlap in participants' descriptions ofwho belongs 7. knowing what others know, what they can do, and how they can contribute to an enterprise 8. mutually defining identities 9. the ability to assess the appropriateness ofactions and products 10. specific tools, representations and artefacts 11. 10ca11ore, shared stories, inside jokes, knowing laughter 12. jargon and shortcuts to communication as well as ease ofproducing new ones 13. certain styles recognised as displaying membership 14. a shared discourse reflecting a certain perspective on the world (Wenger 1998: 125). 95
These characteristics indicate that the three dimensions ofa community ofpractice; namely; a community ofmutual engagement, a negotiated enterprise, a repertoire of negotiable resources accumulated over time are "present to a substantial degree" (ibid.: 126). It is not necessary that all participants interact intensely with everyone else or know each other well, but the less the interaction, the less likely that the grouping can be deemed a community ofpractice. Also, it is not necessary that everything participants do be accountable to a joint enterprise, or that everyone be able to assess everyone's actions or behaviour, but the less this occurs, the more questionable it is that there is a substantial endeavour that brings the group together (ibid.). It is also not necessary that 'repertoire' be completely locally produced. A substantial part ofthe repertoire ofmost communities ofpractice is often imported, and adapted for the community's use, but, iflocal production ofnegotiable resources is scant or ifno local artefacts are being produced, then it brings into question whether the people involved are really doing something or whether there is in fact sustained mutual engagement. 3.3.2.7 The concept 'competence' as explained by Wenger Competence is more than the ability to perform certain actions, or the possession of certain pieces ofinformation. Competent membership includes all three dimensions ofa community ofpractice, namely, mutuality ofengagement, accountability to the enterprise, and negotiability ofthe repertoire (Wenger 1998). It is by its very practice that a community establishes what it is to be a competent participant. "(A) community ofpractice acts as a locally negotiated regime of competence" (ibid.: 137). 'Knowing', then can be defined as what would be recognised as competent participation in the practice. Discovering or knowing something new can be deemed competent participation in the practice. Learning is more than a matter of competence, but also a matter ofexperience ofmeaning. Learning in practice is only 96
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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
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As indicated in the previous chapte
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This view is supported by Putman an
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Learning is social in nature (Putma
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Constant reflection on and understa
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Teachers drew on their membership i
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The above arguments about the lack
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Page 61 and 62: Differences in the cultures oflearn
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Page 67 and 68: America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
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Page 71 and 72: 'accommodation' and intimates that
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Page 75 and 76: Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
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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
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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: new possibilities for meaning. Brok
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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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 (
Page 149: 'connoisseurship'. I realised that
Page 152 and 153: In this study, the criteria for the
Page 154 and 155: In Chapter One I described the sequ
Page 156 and 157: tactic by indicating to research pa
Page 158 and 159: 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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