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

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\ Differing values amongst teachers are linked to several factors, including the grade level they teach, the disciplines they teach, their teaching qualifications, and the type ofpupils they serve. "Compared to medicine or law, education has been unable to forge a shared language ofnorms and values; and practically every significant question in education remains contentious" (Grossman et al 2001 :947). This certainly has significant implications for teacher development and highlights the challenges of establishing professional community in teaching. Such challenges are exacerbated in education because here value systems, ideologies and teacher beliefs are more varied than in the case oflaw and the medical profession where consensus about 'end' and 'means' is much more easily achieved. The phenomenon ofthe contentiousness of education's norms, values and ideologies is pronounced in South African education where teachers' manifest behaviour has been shaped by a tapestry ofinfluences and ideologies that date back to apartheid education. Extensive research regarding the relationship between teacher learning and teacher collaboration has been carried out by researchers who include Rosenholtz (1989), Johnson (1990), and Hargreaves (1994). In his review oftheories ofcommunity, Westheimer (1998) concluded that empirical research was needed to build a stronger conceptualisation of communities. While the research suggests that .collaborative cultures create beneficial conditions for teacher learning, the nature ofthese professional groupings and their connection to teacher learning is still unclear (Galluci 2003). There are, however, many theoretical formulations on how 'community' is supposed to function in educational settings. Nevertheless, research has not yet been able to explore the aspects that constitute 'teacher professional community' to discover how these aspects work to support or hinder teaching (Grossman et aI2001). 41
The above arguments about the lack of understanding ofthe relationship between collaborative cultures and teacher learning and the need for more empirical research into the nature of teacher learning communities have a good deal ofvalidity. Empirical research on teacher learning communities will allow researchers to move beyond anecdotal evidence when theorizing teacher learning communities. The present study hopes to contribute, through empirical research, towards the growing body ofknowledge on teacher learning communities. In her analysis ofcase study data from a school reform initiative in a middle school in a major city in the south-western United States, Phillips (2003) concludes that by creating 'powerful learning' that is, high quality learning for teachers, student achievement across all socio-economic, ethnic and academic groups improved dramatically. Teachers at the school were able to create a set ofinnovative curriculum programmes. These programmes were focussed on previously low achieving students. Phillips notes that "...learning communities create spaces for teachers to form professional relationships, to share information and to provide collegial support" (ibid.:244). Such collegial communities ofpractice represent a marked shift from traditional approaches to staff development. Research by Lieberman (1988), Westheimer (1998) and McLaughlin and Talbert (2001) also suggest that such learning communities have enormous potential for teacher learning. The above research has particular significance for teacher development in South Africa. Issues such as socio-economic, ethnic and academic diversity are deeply entrenched phenomena in South African education. Ofdirect significance to the present study are the issues of 'powerful learning' and the shaping ofan innovative teacher development programme within a teacher learning community. In evaluating the usefulness ofa socio-cultural approach for analysing teachers' responses to the professional learning ofstandards-based reform policies in the United States through a case study ofsix elementary teachers, Gallucci (2003) asserts that communities ofpractice were sites for teacher learning and were mediators ofteachers' responses to institutional reform. Characteristics ofsuch communities ofpractice influenced the degree to which teachers worked out negotiated and thoughtful responses 42
Page 1 and 2:
Teacher Learning in a Community of
Page 3 and 4:
ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
Page 5 and 6: DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
Page 7 and 8: DECLARATION I, Suriamurthee Moonsam
Page 9 and 10: ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
Page 11 and 12: Observation ofJohn's teaching after
Page 13 and 14: A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
Page 15 and 16: TEMS RNCS EMS GET DoE INSET ELRC SA
Page 17 and 18: In describing the subject-pedagogy
Page 19 and 20: teachers lacked content knowledge r
Page 21 and 22: acknowledges the importance and pec
Page 23 and 24: some formal Mathematics teacher edu
Page 25 and 26: study, the coordination functions w
Page 27 and 28: It foregrounds the fact that the co
Page 29 and 30: school. Higher education opportunit
Page 31 and 32: frame models for projecting future
Page 33 and 34: teacher education by the state, (as
Page 35 and 36: schools, classrooms, management and
Page 37 and 38: Although the Teacher Audit indicate
Page 39 and 40: One ofthe first curriculum reform i
Page 41 and 42: entrenched design feature of C2005,
Page 43 and 44: In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
Page 45 and 46: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
Page 47 and 48: As indicated in the previous chapte
Page 49 and 50: This view is supported by Putman an
Page 51 and 52: Learning is social in nature (Putma
Page 53 and 54: Constant reflection on and understa
Page 55: Teachers drew on their membership i
Page 59 and 60: change. She highlights the importan
Page 61 and 62: Differences in the cultures oflearn
Page 63 and 64: persons and is not considered solel
Page 65 and 66: and offers insights into how learni
Page 67 and 68: America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
Page 69 and 70: learned meaning and value for them
Page 71 and 72: 'accommodation' and intimates that
Page 73 and 74: staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
Page 75 and 76: Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
Page 77 and 78: directive in that it guides choices
Page 79 and 80: economic discourse, the economics p
Page 81 and 82: • Understand and promote the impo
Page 83 and 84: 2.7 CONCLUSION This chapter began b
Page 85 and 86: (Walford 2001; Anderson 1999). With
Page 87 and 88: • It places value on the research
Page 89 and 90: The main research question in this
Page 91 and 92: Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
Page 93 and 94: 3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
Page 95 and 96: agree with the way it takes place o
Page 97 and 98: Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
Page 99 and 100: eflecting. The ability of a communi
Page 101 and 102: object to something that in reality
Page 103 and 104: practice is not just an aggregate o
Page 105 and 106: 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
Page 181 and 182:
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
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MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
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the little things like we started i
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understandings and conceptions ofth
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Extract from Mary's final interview
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Teachers were able to describe the
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The essential differences between D
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Debbie's school, Eden Primary was l
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what he's saying. And in that lesso
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they were excellent, really good. I
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Extract from first lesson observati
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out of the material that they had.
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largely recall, repetition or were
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Third extract from Debbie's second
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From the above extracts and discuss
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with a new set ofsubjects. Without
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was three kilometres away from the
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In the next extract, Ben referred t
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for making bread. The difficulty an
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T: P: T: P: T: P: T: Look again. Is
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stemmed from a discussion at the TE
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Key to the table A = Good/substanti
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was doing the budget and where they
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ofher school and the TEMS community
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Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
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Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
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CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
Page 278 and 279:
As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
Page 283 and 284:
The following extract offers a narr
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difficulties (ibid.). In the above
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A community moves from the potentia
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Cindy began the workshop with a tho
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oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
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7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
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necessary to learn what they needed
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Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
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the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
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knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
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MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
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The following extract from a worksh
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MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
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Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
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Soudien, a leading South African ac
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hand, adopts a 'narrow' perspective
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
Page 340 and 341:
Collaboration within teacher learni
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has for teacher learning in a South
Page 344 and 345:
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
Page 346 and 347:
Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
Page 348 and 349:
Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
Page 350 and 351:
Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
Page 352 and 353:
Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
Page 354 and 355:
Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
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APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
Page 358 and 359:
2. What information have you been g
Page 360 and 361:
APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
Page 362:
APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
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