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

participant observation. Non-participants observers"... stand aloof from the group
activities they are investigating and eschew group membership" (ibid.: 107). The
challenge with collecting observational data is ensuring that your presence does not alter
the behaviour ofthe people in the setting. This is known as the 'Hawthorne Effect', and
every effort must be made to prevent this from occurring (Anderson 1999).
My role in teachers' classrooms was that of 'observer as participant' (Merriam 1998).
This was in contrast to my initial role in the workshops, which was that of 'participant as
observer'(ibid.). In the role of observer as participant, my role was known to everyone
and my primary activity was that ofobservation. Observation took precedence over
participation, although I was occasionally drawn into lessons by questions asked ofme by
teachers (clarification ofissues, presenting basic background information, or being asked
to judge the 'quality' of 'products' that pupils had made).
Participant observation studies are not without their critics. Cohen and Manion (1994:
107) caution that this type ofresearch is often described as " ...subjective, biased,
impressionistic, idiosyncratic and lacking in the precise quantifiable measures that are the
hallmark of survey research and experimentation". This raises the question ofinternal
and external validity. External validity addresses the question ofwhether the results of
the case study are applicable to other situations. Internal validity addresses the question
ofwhether the results ofthe research are the real thing or the genuine product, or whether
'findings' are clouded by the researcher's closeness to the data.
In Section 4.6.4, I explain the difficulty I had gaining access to certain teachers'
classrooms and the need for me to develop trust and to convince teachers that the purpose
ofthe classroom observations was strictly for research purposes. My intention was not to
carry out an appraisal, but to undertake an observation ofteachers' EMS practices. This
was actually easier said than done. My nine years ofcommerce teaching experience and
my present occupation as a teacher educator preparing trainee commerce teachers
demanded that I be conscious ofnot evaluating the decisions and actions that teachers
made during their lessons so as to avoid what Eisner (1991) refers to as the danger of
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