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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

1.2.3 Relationship between the TEMS study and the PLESME study As noted above, in the area ofteacher learning and teacher learning communities, Graven (2002) conducted a significant study entitled: An investigation ofmathematics teachers learning in relation to preparationfor curriculum change. The work ofGraven (2002) is important to the present study as it embraced the usefulness ofsocial practice theory (in particular the work ofWenger 1998) in understanding teacher learning through participation in a learning community, an approach common with the present study. While there are similarities between the present study and the Graven study, the present study was not a replication ofthe Graven study as both studies have distinct theoretical and methodological differences that arise mainly out oftheir initial conceptions. In the present study, the research process was informed by the tenets ofsymbolic interactionist theory. The theoretical framework for analysing the stages ofdevelopment ofa community ofpractice as presented by Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) was adopted, an area of analysis that the Graven study did not pursue. This is an important difference as the present study tracked and analysed the development of a community of EMS teachers as the community progressed through its various stages. It analysed different levels of membership as theorised by Wenger et al (2002) and drew on the work ofBourdieu (1986) in order to analyse the development of individuals within the community. Ofsignificance is the fact that the EMS community ofteacher learners was a naturally occurring phenomenon that presented itself as an 'opportunity' sample. The TEMS programme, which became the empirical field for this study was designed with the intention ofcreating conditions for eventual learning community autonomy. The PLESME 'sample' was a sample that could be viewed as a 'contrived' grouping of Mathematics teacher volunteers whose schools had been identified by local education department officials as schools that could participate in the project. These Mathematics teachers had enrolled formally for an accredited and funded in-service programme. Four teachers in the sample had no formal mathematics teacher education. Ofthese teachers, three had been teaching Mathematics for 20 years, 12 years and 9 years respectively while the fourth had no Mathematics teaching experience. The remaining teachers held 7
some formal Mathematics teacher education qualification and were practising Mathematics teachers, with Mathematics teaching experience ranging from 3 years to 13 years. The PLESME programme focussed on enabling teacher engagement with mathematics curriculum changes. This represented working within an existing, established, researched and well documented discipline that was undergoing curriculum change. This was in stark contrast to the TEMS programme that worked with novice EMS teachers working in a 'brand new' new field of study that was essentially a construction on the part ofthe Department ofEducation rather than a formal 'discipline'. As such, prior research into this new learning area was non-existent. The history, nature and scope ofthis learning area are discussed in Chapter Two. The sample in the present study comprised novice EMS teachers, that is, teachers who were teaching the learning area for the very first time. Furthermore, no teacher in the sample possessed any formal qualification in the field ofcommerce education. Subject content knowledge amongst the participating teachers was non-existent, an issue that gave rise to the formation ofthe teacher learning community. Teachers who had formed the TEMS grouping were basically operating in 'survival mode'. This has significant implications for the conceptualisation ofthe research study and the nature ofthe professional development initiative. PLESME had as its vision and primary aim, the need to develop 'lead teachers' in Mathematics, who would assume a range ofleadership roles in the contexts in which they worked. The programme entailed a formal two-year INSET programme based at a university. It was a funded, accredited and registered programme with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Participating teachers who had completed the programme would have received certificates and credits that they could transfer to other SAQA registered courses. Being a registered programme based at a university, the PLESME programme would have had to comply with the formalities ofany formal credit bearing university programme in terms of a developing a formal curriculum, course 8
Page 1 and 2: Teacher Learning in a Community of
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
Page 5 and 6: DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
Page 7 and 8: DECLARATION I, Suriamurthee Moonsam
Page 9 and 10: ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
Page 11 and 12: Observation ofJohn's teaching after
Page 13 and 14: A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
Page 15 and 16: TEMS RNCS EMS GET DoE INSET ELRC SA
Page 17 and 18: In describing the subject-pedagogy
Page 19 and 20: teachers lacked content knowledge r
Page 21: acknowledges the importance and pec
Page 25 and 26: study, the coordination functions w
Page 27 and 28: It foregrounds the fact that the co
Page 29 and 30: school. Higher education opportunit
Page 31 and 32: frame models for projecting future
Page 33 and 34: teacher education by the state, (as
Page 35 and 36: schools, classrooms, management and
Page 37 and 38: Although the Teacher Audit indicate
Page 39 and 40: One ofthe first curriculum reform i
Page 41 and 42: entrenched design feature of C2005,
Page 43 and 44: In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
Page 45 and 46: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
Page 47 and 48: As indicated in the previous chapte
Page 49 and 50: This view is supported by Putman an
Page 51 and 52: Learning is social in nature (Putma
Page 53 and 54: Constant reflection on and understa
Page 55 and 56: Teachers drew on their membership i
Page 57 and 58: The above arguments about the lack
Page 59 and 60: change. She highlights the importan
Page 61 and 62: Differences in the cultures oflearn
Page 63 and 64: persons and is not considered solel
Page 65 and 66: and offers insights into how learni
Page 67 and 68: America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
Page 69 and 70: learned meaning and value for them
Page 71 and 72: 'accommodation' and intimates that
Page 73 and 74:
staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
Page 75 and 76:
Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
Page 77 and 78:
directive in that it guides choices
Page 79 and 80:
economic discourse, the economics p
Page 81 and 82:
• Understand and promote the impo
Page 83 and 84:
2.7 CONCLUSION This chapter began b
Page 85 and 86:
(Walford 2001; Anderson 1999). With
Page 87 and 88:
• It places value on the research
Page 89 and 90:
The main research question in this
Page 91 and 92:
Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
Page 93 and 94:
3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
Page 95 and 96:
agree with the way it takes place o
Page 97 and 98:
Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
Page 99 and 100:
eflecting. The ability of a communi
Page 101 and 102:
object to something that in reality
Page 103 and 104:
practice is not just an aggregate o
Page 105 and 106:
system or institution and the influ
Page 107 and 108:
3.3.2.4 Learning Practice has to be
Page 109 and 110:
new possibilities for meaning. Brok
Page 111 and 112:
These characteristics indicate that
Page 113 and 114:
engage with one another and acknowl
Page 115 and 116:
A structural model ofa community of
Page 117 and 118:
who were regarded as peripheral. A
Page 119 and 120:
Ideally I would have wanted teacher
Page 121 and 122:
they represent key ingredients in s
Page 123 and 124:
that the Wenger framework presents
Page 125 and 126:
more useful and effective than part
Page 127 and 128:
3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
Page 129 and 130:
• While my professional input int
Page 131 and 132:
• Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
Page 133 and 134:
observer played themselves out. A c
Page 135 and 136:
organised events and linked communi
Page 137 and 138:
In keeping with ethnographic princi
Page 139 and 140:
In this qualitative study, my inter
Page 141 and 142:
collection. He questions whether co
Page 143 and 144:
physical context, the complex body
Page 145 and 146:
completed, final text: rather, they
Page 147 and 148:
the teacher over classroom events (
Page 149:
'connoisseurship'. I realised that
Page 152 and 153:
In this study, the criteria for the
Page 154 and 155:
In Chapter One I described the sequ
Page 156 and 157:
tactic by indicating to research pa
Page 158 and 159:
On the occasions that I delivered b
Page 160 and 161:
"Confidentiality involves a clear u
Page 163 and 164:
were cordial and professional. The
Page 165 and 166:
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
Page 196 and 197:
issues that his pupils were raising
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 218 and 219:
MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
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
Page 269 and 270:
Extract from Beth's final interview
Page 271 and 272:
fox the invitations and arrange for
Page 273:
Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
Page 276 and 277:
CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
Page 278 and 279:
As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
Page 280 and 281:
who did or did not want to become f
Page 283 and 284:
The following extract offers a narr
Page 285 and 286:
difficulties (ibid.). In the above
Page 287 and 288:
A community moves from the potentia
Page 289 and 290:
Cindy began the workshop with a tho
Page 291 and 292:
oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
Page 293 and 294:
7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
Page 295 and 296:
necessary to learn what they needed
Page 297 and 298:
Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
Page 299 and 300:
the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
Page 301 and 302:
knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
Page 303 and 304:
MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
Page 305 and 306:
The following extract from a worksh
Page 307 and 308:
MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
Page 309 and 310:
Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
Page 311:
Soudien, a leading South African ac
Page 314 and 315:
hand, adopts a 'narrow' perspective
Page 316 and 317:
As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
Page 318 and 319:
literature review revealed that the
Page 320 and 321:
Another important feature ofWenger'
Page 322 and 323:
'Identity' namely, 'learning as bec
Page 324 and 325:
(Hargreaves 1995). Teacher professi
Page 326 and 327:
for the purposes ofprofessional dev
Page 328 and 329:
teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
Page 330 and 331:
knowledge of subject content is ser
Page 332 and 333:
South Africa, due cognisance must b
Page 334 and 335:
8.3.7 An arena for engaging and con
Page 336 and 337:
the provision of appropriate profes
Page 338 and 339:
level conceptual thinking". They wa
Page 340 and 341:
Collaboration within teacher learni
Page 342 and 343:
has for teacher learning in a South
Page 344 and 345:
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
Page 346 and 347:
Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
Page 348 and 349:
Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
Page 350 and 351:
Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
Page 352 and 353:
Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
Page 354 and 355:
Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
Page 356 and 357:
APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
Page 358 and 359:
2. What information have you been g
Page 360 and 361:
APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
Page 362:
APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?