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

Acknowledgement ofdiversity and accessibility and participation could in fact be facades
that disguise the source from which the rules and conditions governing such collaborative
gestures originate. Ifthe functions of, for example, school clusters that operate as teacher
learning communities are overly determined at the centre it is likely that the process of
collaboration can be constrained and disconnected by a focus on what the products of
such learning communities should be (Hargreaves 1995). While the function oflearning
communities is to articulate, listen and provide a forum for different voices to be heard
and to determine guiding ethical principles as a basis for this to occur, contrived learning
communities may in fact coerce teachers into compliance with imposed policy reform
that may be bankrupt, elitist or 'inappropriate'.
In the diverse South African context, while teacher learning communities may comprise
teachers who hail from vastly different teaching contexts, dominant teachers in learning
communities may well be from middle class schools and as such may dictate the agenda
by focussing on curriculum issues pertinent to middle class schools and children at the
expense ofthe challenges facing teachers working in socio-economically deprived
schools. Soudien (2004) in his analysis ofthe 'class scape' in South African education
reminds us that while dominant classes have had to make space for new constituencies,
they had done so on their own terms. Ifmiddle class teachers formed middleclass
teacher learning communities and engaged in issues that were peculiar to their contexts,
and ifworking class teachers did the same, this kind ofsituation is likely to perpetuate
imbalances and inequities that exist in our society. Some teachers working in socio­
economically and academically advantaged contexts may exercise selfinterest by
electing to form learning communities with likeminded individuals who may for example
include on their agenda the need to 'maintain standards' and achieve high and quality
pass rates as a way ofentrenching their own status within their schools. This particular
type ofcommunity formation is exclusionary as it may discriminate against certain
groups and may be in contravention ofthe principles ofa democratic society.
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