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

CHAPTER SIX
USING WENGER'S CONSTRUCTS AS TOOLS FOR ANALYSING
TEACHER LEARNING IN THE TEMS COMMUNITY
6.1 INTRODUCTION
Chapter Five presented an analysis ofone teacher's learning using Wenger's framework
so as to provide an 'ideal type' basis for theorizing the frame for the data analysis in this
and the next chapter. A detailed discussion ofWenger's framework was provided in
Chapter Four.
Graven (2002) concurs that Wenger's model offers a useful structure with which to
proceed with analysing the phenomenon under study, namely, the nature ofteacher
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learning in a community ofpractice. It would appear to be a 'natural' choice to proceed
to analyse teacher learning in terms ofthe four constitutive constructs oflearning that
Wenger suggests, namely, meaning, practice, identity and community (Wenger 1998).
However, attempting to analyse and represent the data that emerged from the study
presented particular challenges. Decisions had to be made as to whether each individual
participant's story should be represented in a separate chapter, similar to that ofthe
previous chapter or, should participants be grouped and analysed as a 'unit' and data
analysed and presented as that of 'one' homogenous teacher or, should each ofWenger's
four components be represented in separate chapters, but analysed across all participants?
This was a tricky decision as Wenger reminds us that the four elements oflearning are
'deeply interconnected and mutually defining' (ibid.:5). With reference to the model (see
Figure 3.1), Wenger notes that even ifone were to displace any ofthe four elements with
learning and position the displaced component in the centre, the model will still make
good sense. He argues that the model's 'analytical power' resides in its ability to
integrate the components (ibid.:6).
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