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

Key to the table
A = Good/substantially present
B = Developing/adequate
C = Partial/scant/inadequate
D = Weak/poor/non-existent
From the above table, we see that teachers had progressed differently along the learning
continuum in terms oftheir classroom practice. Participation in the TEMS programme
had an uneven impact on individual participants. John and Debbie stood out as having
made significant shifts in terms ofmost categories. Ben on the other hand had made
marginal shifts. Mary, Kim, Shirley and Beth had made distinct shifts but these were not
as profound as in the case ofJohn or Debbie.
6.4 SECTION THREE
AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHER LEARNING USING WENGER'S
CONSTUCT 'IDENTITY': LEARNING AS BECOMING
In this section, an analysis ofteachers' learning as evolving professional identities is
presented. Teachers' changing professional identities are analysed in terms ofthe extent
to which professional identities 'remained unchanged', were 'marginal- maintained
original identities " reflected 'increasing, notable change' or 'significant, profound
change'.
An analysis ofmy journal writings, post observation reflections, interviews and informal
discussions revealed that teachers had started to describe their learning in terms of
changed perspectives about who they were and what they were becoming. Learning
entailed changing identities.
In the previous section we saw how teacher identities had changed in relation to their
changing classroom practices. In this section, we explore teachers' practices and roles in
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