Theses (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.Conceptualising teacher learning in terms of participation in a teacher learning
community is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa. This study explores the
usefulness of applying a social practice theory of learning to a community of novice
Economic and Management Sciences teacher learners involved in the Teaching
Economics and Management Sciences (TEMS) teacher development project. It examines
the influence of contextual constraints, teachers' biographies and professional career
trajectories on teachers' ability to participate in a learning community. By drawing on
Wenger's theory of learning in a community of practice and Wenger et al's stages of
community development framework, it also illuminates and theorises the potential that a
community of practice framework has for teacher development.
Wenger's framework offered important insights that informed and shaped the
development of the TEMS programme. It also provided a useful tool for analysing
teacher learning as constituting four components, namely, meaning, practice, identity and
community. The complex relationship that exists between these different components of
learning is examined. The study offers a critique of the feasibility and appropriateness of
using Wenger's framework for analysing a teacher learning community.
Methodologically, the tenets of symbolic interactionist ethnography were employed in
the collection of data for this study. An exposition of the complexity and challenge of
adopting the dual role of researcher as observer and participant is presented. An analysis
is also provided of the methodological challenge of gaining access and acceptance in a
South African education research context.
The study examines how the essential tension in teacher professional development,
namely, that of curriculum development and deepening subject matter knowledge is
managed in a teacher learning community of novice Economic and Management
Sciences teachers. It reveals the potential that a learning community framework has for
teacher learning through different levels of participation, and points to the importance of
the input of an outside expert, particularly during the early stages of development of a
community of teacher learners who lack subject content knowledge. It argues that
teacher learning communities present a fruitful and viable alternative to the current
'deficit' models of teacher development that typify the present South African teacher
development scenario, as teacher learning communities suggest a conceptual
reorientation of the discourse on teacher development
