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

difficulties. The work ofGraven (2002) was useful and it was for this reason that a
strategy similar to that used by Graven was pursued. It must be noted though that the
current study attempted to extend on Graven's approach by embracing Wenger's later
work (Wenger et a12002) and the work ofBourdieu (1986) in the analysis.
This chapter begins with a generalised finding that will be supported and nuanced as this
chapter proceeds and in the chapters that follow. This generalisation is:
As the TEMS project proceeded, it became clear that teachers' participation in the
project had resulted in learning taking placefor all participating teachers. Evidence of
such learning could be gleaned from the way teachers demonstrated changes with regard
to:
The way they made meaning ofthe new EMS learning area;
Their actual practice in their EMS classrooms;
Their changing professional identities within and outside the TEMS programme;
Their participation in the TEMS community.
It must be noted that although Wenger's framework provides a useful tool for an analysis
oflearning as constituting four components, these components and the changes that took
place within them were inextricably linked to one another. This complex relationship
between the components is presented in the ensuing analysis.
From the data sets for each participant, it was evident that movements and shifts had
taken place for all participating teachers. It was clear that the changes for each were in
fact positive changes that manifested themselves in the form ofimproved
'involvement/performance' in respect ofall four components. All participating teachers
in the study demonstrated improved ways oftalking about their changing ability to
experience the new EMS learning area and make meaning thereof. Participants had also
developed and enhanced their pedagogic and subject matter knowledge with regard to
EMS. They had become more active in an expanded range ofschool and community
activities. All participants had grown in terms of who they were and what they were
becoming in the context oftheir communities. However, the rate and extent to which
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