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

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the little things like we started in school, like making their gift boxes, making their gift packets, making their chocolates on an occasion. Beth described her knowledge and experience ofEMS as follows: Extract ofinitial interview: Beth MM: Ok, how would you describe your knowledge of EMS? Beth: As far as EMS is concerned, umm there's a lot that I've learnt when I was asked to take EMS. I don't have an economic background. Even at school I did not learn Business Economics. I was in general. My subjects were History, Biology, Biblical Studies and 3 languages: Zulu, English and Afrikaans. So I attended a workshop in OBE. Then EMS was explained, things about the economy and so forth. And then when we came back, we had to work out the workload and then EMS was given to me. Well I can say that I've learnt a lot, even to make a budget. Sometimes we fail to budget. To learn to live within your means and then you find that I've got to teach these learners that, so that they won't fall in the trap... So that I enjoy it anyway. Beth felt that she since she was nominated to teach EMS at her school, she had learnt more about the learning area. She had attended one workshop (arranged by the Department ofEducation), in which basic EMS information had been provided. Although she did not have an economic background either from her school or university studies, she appeared to have a positive attitude towards the learning area. Beth revealed her lack ofunderstanding in her response to the question on the EMS learning outcomes. She responded by referring to specific outcomes, suggesting that they were 'made by learners', an indication ofher confusion about the relationship between critical outcomes and learning outcomes. Beth: Ja well the 5.0., specific outcomes, mmm, although I can say that, they're made by learners. They need to make and negotiate meaning. I think it's the S.O:s that most of our learners, they are familiar with and they just know what we really need to do. In the post interview reflection, Beth conceded that she 'hardly ever' read the outcomes and did not know what they meant. The following is her interpretation ofwhat the EMS learning area was about. 205
Beth: Ok, it's about economy and it's about our needs and our wants and how to also to learn to live within our means, how to budget, make budgets and so forth. This is what I can say. In response to how EMS should be taught and how pupils best learnt EMS, teachers responses included: 'do more practical stuff; 'get them to do things'; 'work in groups' 'hands on'; 'It's not like I talk; you listen type ofthing' and 'you want them to cut things'. Teachers associated EMS with the need to do and make things. This could be explained by teachers' perceptions that the learning area was concerned with entrepreneurship and the need to make and sell things. In response to the usefulness ofthe workshops run by the Department ofEducation, teachers expressed mixed sentiments that ranged from not having benefited at all to being quite appreciative ofhaving received at least some information, even ifit had been from only one workshop. Reflecting on the transcripts above, it is clear that teachers' understandings and conceptions ofthe EMS learning area were indeed very weak. When 'pushed' for a perspective on what the EMS learning area was about, all teachers displayed distinctively narrow and limited conceptions ofthe learning area. Their everyday understandings of EMS concepts that they referred to were also suspect. Attempts at describing the learning area and the outcomes associated with it, revealed very weak understandings thereof. In attempting to categorise teachers' understandings and conceptions, all teachers, except John could be categorised as having weak understandings and conceptions ofthe EMS learning area. John, as described in Chapter Five, was able to draw on his everyday or lay understandings ofEMS, albeit in a limited way. Teachers' poor knowledge ofthe EMS learning area can be attributed to the fact that none ofthem had any formal or informal qualification in any commerce related discipline. Secondly, their negative experiences with the learning area and their negative perceptions ofC2005 and its complex jargon were telling factors that hindered their access to the curriculum policy documents. Thirdly, the lack ofsupport from the Department ofEducation meant that professional development in the EMS learning area was severely lacking. In terms oftheir 206
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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
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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
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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 218 and 219: MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
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
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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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