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

social practice theory as envisaged in teacher learning communities, offers immense
potential as a context for this to happen. Hargreaves (1995) argues that collaboration
amongst teachers embodies the principle of moral support. "(It) strengthens resolve,
permits vulnerabilities to be shared and aired and carries people through those failures
and frustrations that accompany change..." (ibid.: 151). In teacher learning communities
where collaborative activity occurs, such collaboration is likely to improve teacher
effectiveness since it encourages teachers to take risks and to engage with different
methodologies. Teachers are likely to feel a greater sense of efficacy since collaboration
in learning communities allows for positive encouragement and feedback to teachers
(Hargreaves 1995). Such a forum also provides a setting in which another significant
challenge facing African countries (including South Africa) in their CPD initiatives, that
is, is to manage the tension between tradition and modernity (Christie et al 2004).
8.3.7 A forum for addressing potentially conflictual roles
CPD based on social practice theory offers hope for addressing another complex
phenomenon facing South African education, namely teacher authoritarianism. Christie et
al (2004) warn that authoritarianism is a phenomenon that is firmly entrenched in the
psyche ofmany teachers in South African schools and serves as a serious impediment to
moving teachers from the role oftechnician to that ofreflective practitioner. Learner­
centred pedagogies are frequently in conflict with teachers' lived experiences and
previously established realities and expectations ofthe teaching task. CPD initiatives that
have as their objective the development ofreflective practitioners place participating
teachers in potentially conflictual roles. Teachers' traditional values and historical
experience are compelling factors that determine the extent to which teachers may
assume or attempt roles as reflective practitioners (Christie et al 2004). Teacher learning
communities however, can provide a safe environment in which such tensions can be
played out, examined and discussed, as was revealed in the learning community in the
present study.
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