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

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MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and read the info, adapt in my head and then plan my lesson. That's what I have to do. (sounding irritable) Having read the outcomes, what do you understand by learning outcome one which 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. What do you think this means? You know, although I read them, I don't exactly understand some of the terms. Even some of the other teachers don't even know what they mean. She went on to remark that she had little knowledge ofthe EMS learning area and that she had received little support from the provincial department-run OBE workshops. It appeared as if struggling teachers turned to each other for a measure ofsupport and reassurance. Extract from Shirley's initial interview: Shirley: I'm being honest. I don't have much knowledge of EMS. This is the first time I'm teaching it so what I do is I run to JJ's class and I ask her to help me. I didn't have any knowledge of it. I didn't know what it was. And when I went to the OBE workshop, they didn't do much with us. They just gave us a handout about what is EMS and we had to read that on our own. So I had basically the grade seven teachers that helped me with EMS this year. And now that I am attending your workshops, I'm getting insight. I didn't know a thing. When questioned as to what she thought the EMS learning area was about, Shirley referred to the EMS learning area as knowing how to budget one's money. She was unable to take this very limited notion ofEMS any further at that point, indicating that she had to learn more about it. In an extract from Shirley's initial interview she expressed her desperation: MM: Shirley: If someone were to ask you, as an EMS teacher, how would you describe what EMS is all about. what would you say? In a nutshell, EMS is about how to budget your money. And if they want a further explanation, then I have to sit and think about it and work on it. As I say it was totally new. It still is new to me, because this is the third month that I am doing it. I'll have to find my way as to what it is before I can give 203
a constructive answer as to what EMS is. See me one year from today and I'll be fine. To be honest with you I feel like I am drowning because EMS is new. HSS is fine, I majored in History, so its fine. I know what's happening there. But to tie up HSS with EMS in that lesson, I need help with that to be honest. I can't keep running to the other teachers. Mary, having taught for twenty-four years commented on her knowledge ofthe outcomes applicable to EMS as follows: Extract from initial interview: Mary Mary: Trying to (understand the outcomes), I won't say I'm into it. Honestly, I think because I come from the old school, I actually don't look at the outcomes too much. When I plan a lesson, I have in my mind at the end of the day; this is what my children must achieve.... If they've learned something related to that programme, I feel happy, you know. Everything is successful but quite honestly I hardly look at those specific outcomes. Mary had clearly not engaged with the most recent policy document. She still referred to terms that existed in the first version ofC2005, namely, 'specific outcomes'. This term had been changed to being called 'learning outcomes'. She went on to declare: Extract from initial interview: Mary Mary: I must be honest I'm finding my way. I'm really but basically, okay I started my grade four's you know and the basics of how you would spend your pocket money and how you would save and uh .... You know their needs and wants. Very basic, related to their own experience. Her perspective ofEMS stemmed from the basic entrepreneurship morning that she had arranged for her pupils. She noted: Extract from initial interview: Mary Mary: I think because EMS is concentrating towards fields for entrepreneurship ... a programme where the child is given experiences of looking at what type of things they can do eventually to become a successful entrepreneur. I think 204
Page 1 and 2:
Teacher Learning in a Community of
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ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
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DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
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DECLARATION I, Suriamurthee Moonsam
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ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
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Observation ofJohn's teaching after
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A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
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TEMS RNCS EMS GET DoE INSET ELRC SA
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In describing the subject-pedagogy
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teachers lacked content knowledge r
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acknowledges the importance and pec
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some formal Mathematics teacher edu
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study, the coordination functions w
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It foregrounds the fact that the co
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school. Higher education opportunit
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frame models for projecting future
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teacher education by the state, (as
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schools, classrooms, management and
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Although the Teacher Audit indicate
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One ofthe first curriculum reform i
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entrenched design feature of C2005,
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In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
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LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
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As indicated in the previous chapte
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This view is supported by Putman an
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Learning is social in nature (Putma
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Constant reflection on and understa
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Teachers drew on their membership i
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The above arguments about the lack
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change. She highlights the importan
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Differences in the cultures oflearn
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persons and is not considered solel
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and offers insights into how learni
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America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
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learned meaning and value for them
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'accommodation' and intimates that
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staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
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Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
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directive in that it guides choices
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economic discourse, the economics p
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• Understand and promote the impo
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2.7 CONCLUSION This chapter began b
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(Walford 2001; Anderson 1999). With
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• It places value on the research
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The main research question in this
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Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
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3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
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agree with the way it takes place o
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Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
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eflecting. The ability of a communi
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object to something that in reality
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practice is not just an aggregate o
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system or institution and the influ
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3.3.2.4 Learning Practice has to be
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new possibilities for meaning. Brok
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These characteristics indicate that
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engage with one another and acknowl
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A structural model ofa community of
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who were regarded as peripheral. A
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Ideally I would have wanted teacher
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they represent key ingredients in s
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that the Wenger framework presents
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more useful and effective than part
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3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
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• While my professional input int
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• Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
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observer played themselves out. A c
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organised events and linked communi
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In keeping with ethnographic princi
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In this qualitative study, my inter
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collection. He questions whether co
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physical context, the complex body
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completed, final text: rather, they
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the teacher over classroom events (
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'connoisseurship'. I realised that
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In this study, the criteria for the
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In Chapter One I described the sequ
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tactic by indicating to research pa
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On the occasions that I delivered b
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"Confidentiality involves a clear u
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were cordial and professional. The
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CHAPTER FIVE HOW HAD TEACHER LEARNI
Page 167 and 168: individual participants changed dif
Page 169 and 170: He received his schooling under the
Page 171 and 172: school regularly updated the books
Page 173 and 174: gone on to become really wealthy. I
Page 175 and 176: John noted that in planning the cur
Page 177 and 178: Significant changes had thus occurr
Page 179 and 180: just transfer it. For example, bank
Page 181 and 182: Extract from the lesson: John: Pupi
Page 183 and 184: schoolwork as 'economic work'. This
Page 185 and 186: John: Now we are not looking at thi
Page 187 and 188: cardboard and drawing or sticking i
Page 189 and 190: John: Now I want you to remember wh
Page 191 and 192: John succeeded in drawing on the sp
Page 193: at her maths books to which the tea
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Page 198 and 199: 5.5 JOHN'S CHANGING PROFESSIONAL ID
Page 200 and 201: to achieve their joint enterprise o
Page 202 and 203: 5.6 JOHN'S INCREASED PARTICIPATION
Page 204 and 205: John regarded the close interaction
Page 206 and 207: As stated earlier, because the 'con
Page 209 and 210: CHAPTER SIX USING WENGER'S CONSTRUC
Page 211: 6.2 SECTION ONE AN ANALYSIS OF TEAC
Page 214 and 215: understanding it at all. I just don
Page 216 and 217: In the final interview that took pl
Page 220 and 221: the little things like we started i
Page 222 and 223: understandings and conceptions ofth
Page 224 and 225: Extract from Mary's final interview
Page 227 and 228: Teachers were able to describe the
Page 229 and 230: The essential differences between D
Page 231 and 232: Debbie's school, Eden Primary was l
Page 233 and 234: what he's saying. And in that lesso
Page 235 and 236: they were excellent, really good. I
Page 237 and 238: Extract from first lesson observati
Page 239 and 240: out of the material that they had.
Page 241: largely recall, repetition or were
Page 244 and 245: Third extract from Debbie's second
Page 247 and 248: From the above extracts and discuss
Page 249 and 250: with a new set ofsubjects. Without
Page 251: was three kilometres away from the
Page 254 and 255: In the next extract, Ben referred t
Page 256 and 257: for making bread. The difficulty an
Page 258 and 259: T: P: T: P: T: P: T: Look again. Is
Page 260 and 261: stemmed from a discussion at the TE
Page 263 and 264: Key to the table A = Good/substanti
Page 265 and 266: was doing the budget and where they
Page 267 and 268: ofher school and the TEMS community
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Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
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Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
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CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
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As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
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The following extract offers a narr
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difficulties (ibid.). In the above
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A community moves from the potentia
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Cindy began the workshop with a tho
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oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
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7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
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necessary to learn what they needed
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Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
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the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
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knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
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MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
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The following extract from a worksh
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MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
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Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
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Soudien, a leading South African ac
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hand, adopts a 'narrow' perspective
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As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
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literature review revealed that the
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Another important feature ofWenger'
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'Identity' namely, 'learning as bec
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(Hargreaves 1995). Teacher professi
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for the purposes ofprofessional dev
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teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
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knowledge of subject content is ser
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South Africa, due cognisance must b
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8.3.7 An arena for engaging and con
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the provision of appropriate profes
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level conceptual thinking". They wa
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Collaboration within teacher learni
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has for teacher learning in a South
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Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
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Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
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Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
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Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
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Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
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Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
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APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
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2. What information have you been g
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APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
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APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
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