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

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Kim: I feel a little bit more confident now. I must admit that when I first started, I myself didn't know much, because it was something new. And I feel much more confident, and I know what to look for and what to incorporate into my lessons. Kim's strengthening professional identity as an EMS teacher stemmed from her increased content knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge ofthe EMS learning area and the recognition she was starting to enjoy as a result ofbeing a member ofthe TEMS community. Her professional identity as an EMS teacher was reflected in the new-found assurance with which she could talk about and make meaning ofthe EMS learning area. She had shifted from being a teacher who was coerced into teaching EMS to becoming an aspirant EMS teacher looking to extend her pupils. Kim can be regarded as having experienced an 'increasing, notable change' in her professional identity. In the discussion that follows, I examine Beth's changing professional identity. Beth was a Black African teacher, teaching in a semi-rural area just outside the Greater Durban area. Over the years that she had been teaching at her school, she had developed close links with teachers from other schools in her district. In the extract below, Beth described the difficulty that EMS teachers at other schools in her district experienced. She explained that there were many teachers who needed assistance with EMS. Some teachers had approached her for assistance and she had obliged by sharing her resources and knowledge with them. She had already set up a planning meeting with the affected teachers in the area and was planning to start a monthly programme for EMS teachers for the following year. She noted the need for teachers to 'network so that we can help ourselves'. Here Beth alluded to the fact that new EMS teachers were expected to teach the learning area with little or no help from the Department ofEducation. Beth's growing self-beliefcan be seen in her recognition ofherselfas someone who could serve as a 'facilitator' ofEMS workshops in the future. 253
Extract from Beth's final interview: MM: Beth: MM: Beth: Have you made any contacts with other teachers from other schools? Yes, with the Kwamanzini people. We agreed that we are going to meet this year, so that next year we got a programme where we say that we can meet at least once a month so that we can have other educators because there are so many educators that are needing this kind of help and workshops. And I myself have found the workshops quite much useful, because I do not have an economic background. You will find that there are some educators who are saying that I am teaching EMS but I do not understand and also I don't know what to do. And you tell them, come and see me and I can just explain things to them, so they can teach something, you know, they can teach some EMS. They may try to understand it as well because in some schools the principals don't like to say that teachers can just leave the children and they can attend. There were teachers who approached me at Clermont. She said that she is teaching EMS but she is not clear enough with EMS but I promised to help her. I gave her some of the books and the materials that we got from the workshops. I made arrangements and agreed that we must meet at least once a month. We need to network so that we can help ourselves. What opportunities have these workshops opened up for you? (laughs a long laugh) Well I think I can now be a facilitator, but I'm not quite sure with that. But at least there are things I can help, because as were talking with the educators at Kwadengezi and Kwamanzini that we must try to meet and do some networking, so that we can help other educators in other schools. So its quite clear to me and them that if we just invite these people and explain to them what EMS is so that at least they can understand. So we can start right from the introduction, right from the beginning. At least for me I can just share what I learnt with others. In the next extract from Beth's final interview, we see how Beth's status and position in her school had strengthened as a result ofher EMS activities at her school. She described herself as taking the lead in discussions with the school on matters concerning EMS. Whereas in the past she would rely on Ben to communicate through the head of department information to the principal about EMS activities, Beth felt empowered to communicate directly with the principal on matters concerning EMS. Her school serviced a very poor community and often ran into financial difficulties because ofparents' inability to pay school fees. She described how EMS projects 254
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
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individual participants changed dif
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He received his schooling under the
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school regularly updated the books
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gone on to become really wealthy. I
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John noted that in planning the cur
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Significant changes had thus occurr
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just transfer it. For example, bank
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Extract from the lesson: John: Pupi
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schoolwork as 'economic work'. This
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John: Now we are not looking at thi
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cardboard and drawing or sticking i
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John: Now I want you to remember wh
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John succeeded in drawing on the sp
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at her maths books to which the tea
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issues that his pupils were raising
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5.5 JOHN'S CHANGING PROFESSIONAL ID
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to achieve their joint enterprise o
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5.6 JOHN'S INCREASED PARTICIPATION
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John regarded the close interaction
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As stated earlier, because the 'con
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CHAPTER SIX USING WENGER'S CONSTRUC
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6.2 SECTION ONE AN ANALYSIS OF TEAC
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understanding it at all. I just don
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In the final interview that took pl
Page 218 and 219: MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
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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: ofher school and the TEMS community
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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
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Page 316 and 317: 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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