Transcending traditional boundaries for teacher professional development: exploring a community of practice approach to CPD - Murthi Maistry

INSET teacher development models in South Africa have been largely ineffective in their efforts to facilitate professional development of teachers. Many teachers are poorly equipped to handle 'new' curriculum implementation. The introduction of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) in the primary school has created a demand for EMS INSET in South Africa. This paper analyses the nature of teacher learning of novice Economic and Management Sciences teachers involved in the Teaching Economic and Management Sciences (TEMS) teacher development project. While teacher communities of practice present interesting challenges for teacher development, they do in fact have much potential as vehicles for teacher professional development. By drawing on the work of Wenger (1998) and Graven (2002) this paper argues that a community of practice framework provides a useful means of analysis teacher learning. It also examines the tensions in using a community of practice framework for analysisng teacher learning.
From: Journal of Education, Vol. 43 (2008)