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

acknowledges the importance and peculiarity ofdifferent 'teacher learning' contexts. It
was believed that the study would enhance our understanding ofteacher development in
the South African context.
Secondly, this research study was intended to inform my own professional practice as a
teacher educator involved in the pre-service and in-service training ofteachers of
commercial subjects. The literature on commerce education is based on the assumption
that pedagogy is coherent with the discipline. This study examines the extent to which the
constraints ofdifferent contexts influence the way teachers learn and practice Economic
and Management Sciences and its associated pedagogy. It was hoped that this research
would inform the commerce teacher education programmes that I design in terms of
better preparing commerce teachers.
Thirdly, my eagerness to initiate and sustain debate in the area ofcommerce education
research stem from the gaping void that exists in school-based commerce education
research in South Africa. While countries like the UK, USA and Australia have adapted
and refined their own approaches to commerce teaching, the pedagogy of South African
school commerce education has remained stagnant. It was hopeCl that this research study
would trigger a debate that would begin to interrogate the state of school commerce
education in South Africa.
As stated earlier, the presence oflarge numbers of unqualified EMS teachers had created
a demand for EMS teacher development. EMS teaching and learning was a relatively new
phenomenon in the South African education context, and as such had not been subject to
intensive research. The EMS learning area itselfneeded to establish its place in the
school curriculum in terms ofhow it was being practised. Research and curriculum
development into the high priority subject areas like Languages and Mathematics is often
at the expense ofa 'new' learning area like EMS.
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