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

MM: ..., have you read the NCS document? Are you familiar with the four outcomes
associated with the EMS learning area?
John: I'm quite familiar with the outcomes. Look I'll be honest with you, the specific
outcomes got me in a puzzle, you know it's too much. So now when it's been defined
to just the learning outcomes, I find it more helpful, you know, I've got a focus.
MM: Learning Outcome One says that the learner will be able to demonstrate knowledge
and understanding of the economic cycle within the context of the economic
problem and Learning Outcome Three says that the learner will be able to
demonstrate knowledge and the ability to apply responsibly a range of managerial,
consumer and financial skills.
John: (Pauses to think) Eh, you see economic problems would be like unemployment etc. the
third learning outcome is about things I already do with my children, maybe not
exactly everything, but I do teach them consumer skills and management skills. I
have to be honest with you; I very seldom refer to the document (meaning the new
National Curriculum Statement). I try to do what I know and what is relevant to my
school.
John thus revealed a limited knowledge ofwhat the new Economic and Management
Sciences learning area was about. He appeared to link EMS very strongly with 'life
skills' and described EMS as a 'science' that would help children 'map out their lives'.
He said that EMS teachers had to provide ideas to their pupils. These ideas should help
pupils generate ideas for their own lives. Pupils, he maintained, had to be conscious about
the value ofmoney. It was important to instil in pupils the need to be successful and to
have dreams and to develop ideas very early in their lives on how to achieve these
dreams. He focussed his teaching on budgeting and issues around money. The passage
below provides evidence ofthis:
MM: How would you describe what EMS is about? If somebody says to you, • You're an
EMS teacher, what's EMS all about?"
John: I'll tell them it's one of the life skills. It is a science that a child will map out his
life. Although you have HSS but EMS, the child will map out... We're giving him
ideas, you know, to map out his life. He's either gonna take that baton you're giving
him or he's gonna drop it. You encourage him to take it and it opens the way for him
in terms of money, in terms of how he's gonna live his life. In terms of... he has
dreams, all children have dreams. You give them a topic- What will you do if you win
the lotto? They got the answers ready made because they thought about it. So you
will find if you tell them, what will you do if you win the lotto, that's a budget.
They'll work out what they're gonna do with the money and they will put so much in a
bank, so much for pleasure, so much for clothes, for the house, so on and so forth.
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