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

5.6 JOHN'S INCREASED PARTICIPATION IN TEMS COMMUNITY AND
illS ALIGNMENT TO OTHER COMMUNITIES
From the previous discussions, we identified John's shifting practices with regard to the
way he related to his pupils (i.e. his classroom community). He had also made substantial
strides in 'reconstructing' himself as a leader in EMS curriculum development in his
school and within the regional teaching fraternity. John also began to talk about and make
meaning ofhis changing ability with regard EMS and EMS teaching.
John had begun increasingly to align himselfto the TEMS community and to a range of
other communities. He had begun to see the work ofthe TEMS community as an
enterprise worth pursuing, as evidenced in his networking with other social
configurations.
Extract from final interview:
MM: Have you made contacts with teachers from other schools?
John: You see most of these teachers I know for a very long time, we either meet
on sports fields, at union meetings, at socials, so this is like, I met a teacher
from XX School at the sports track events. Her first question to me was
·When's the next workshop?". You see now, so everyone is keen, when I mean
everyone, these are the devoted teachers. There are some who came and
probably felt that the route we have taken won't work at their school and so
on, but those who are in this group seem to have enjoyed the programme.
Here John explained how teachers who had previously identified him with other activities
had begun to enquire from him about developments in the TEMS programme. John
identified with and had taken 'ownership' ofthe TEMS project. He defended the
programme by suggesting that those teachers to whom the programme did not appeal had
left while teachers (himself included) who had elected to remain had in fact benefited.
This further demonstrated his alignment to the project and the TEMS teachers. In
response to a question (final interview) on whether he had been influenced by other
TEMS teachers, John commented as follows:
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