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

While the thrust ofthe present research study is to examine teacher learning and the
influence ofteaching contexts, these issues are explored within the context ofthe new
EMS learning area. The next section explores the field ofEconomics education by
focussing on the nature ofthe discipline and the pedagogy associated with the discipline.
This section locates Economic and Management Sciences in the broader field of
commerce, and presents the Department ofEducation's perspective on the new EMS
learning area.
2.5 LOCATING ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES IN THE
BROADER FIELD OF ECONOMICS EDUCATION
EMS is one ofthe eight learning areas included in South Africa's new Revised National
Curriculum Statement for the senior phase in the General Education and Training (GET)
band. The previous primary school curriculum did not include any commerce related
subjects. Apart from a few independent schools and ex-model C schools that attempted to
implement elements of entrepreneurship education into the curriculum, public schools in
general have had limited or no experience ofcommercial subjects.
The EMS learning area is essentially a uniquely South African formulation that draws
mainly on the field ofeconomics and includes elements ofthe fields ofmanagement and
entrepreneurship. While research has been conducted into the teaching and learning of
the traditional primary school disciplines ofMathematics, Science and Languages (Adler
and Reed 2002), research in EMS is virtually non-existent. In the absence ofliterature on
EMS, this research study drew on literature in the field ofEconomics education as it
applied to secondary schools in an attempt to develop a framework with which to locate
the core ofthis new learning area.
The discussion that ensues thus provides an exposition ofthe literature in the area of
Economics education. Research in Economics education may be divided into research on
economics teaching and learning at school level and post-school level. Poor student
performance in introductory, tertiary economics courses in the United States triggered
numerous studies including those by Crawley and Wilton (1974), Bonello, Swartz and
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