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

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was three kilometres away from the school. Dur<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>tervals, children generally sat<br />

along the corridors or played games on a dusty open area <strong>in</strong> front <strong>of</strong>their classrooms.<br />

This school serviced a very poor community. Almost all the pupils came from homes that<br />

were impoverished. Most families <strong>in</strong> the area struggled to meet their most basic<br />

requirements <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> food. For this reason, the school had succeeded <strong>in</strong> secur<strong>in</strong>g<br />

sponsorship that enabled it to provide a meal to its pupils everyday (usually soup and<br />

bread). <strong>Teacher</strong>s were elected to a committee that was responsible for ensur<strong>in</strong>g that the<br />

meal for each day was ready on time. Ben mentioned that because <strong>of</strong>the feed<strong>in</strong>g scheme,<br />

the school had excellent pupil attendance. The school also provided for all the basic<br />

stationery requirements <strong>of</strong>its pupils.<br />

At the start <strong>of</strong>the TEMS project, Pecan Primary did not have a function<strong>in</strong>g library. It had<br />

no library furniture and fitt<strong>in</strong>gs, but it did have about thirty books. A committee had been<br />

set up to put <strong>in</strong> place plans to develop a library. Beth and Ben, two <strong>of</strong>the TEMS teachers,<br />

were play<strong>in</strong>g lead<strong>in</strong>g roles <strong>in</strong> sett<strong>in</strong>g up the new library. A classroom was allocated for<br />

this purpose. With the books that I had secured for the school, and donations from other<br />

<strong>in</strong>stitutions, the first functional library <strong>in</strong> the school's thirty-year history started <strong>in</strong> August<br />

2003.<br />

6.3.5 <strong>Teacher</strong>s' perceptions <strong>of</strong> their chang<strong>in</strong>g EMS practices: How had Ben<br />

experienced change?<br />

Ben reflected on his own school career and regarded the teachers who had taught him as<br />

really good. As mentioned earlier, he ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed that corporal punishment meted out to<br />

him had made him a better person. Ben adopted a similar approach to his teach<strong>in</strong>g,<br />

stat<strong>in</strong>g that he also used corporal punishment <strong>in</strong> his teach<strong>in</strong>g. He presented himself as an<br />

authoritarian teacher and a strong discipl<strong>in</strong>arian. His comment about corporal punishment<br />

and Black African children presented a chill<strong>in</strong>g rem<strong>in</strong>der that draconian punitive<br />

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