CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
2.6 Theories of teacher learning
2.6.3 Learning metaphors
The CoP concept was useful for the study for two reasons, namely, I was able to understand how teachers as participants participate through activities in their learning and how the cluster as a social setting contributes to the professional learning of the teachers.
Before discussing the Communities of Practice concepts that I used to analyse data, I want to look at the two learning metaphors to help me have a deeper understanding of what is happening and be able to describe the kind of learning taking place in the Life Sciences cluster. Sfard (1998) describes two learning metaphors that inform a theory of learning, namely, Acquisition Metaphor (AM) and Participation Metaphor (PM). Sfard (1998, p. 4) argues that the metaphors are informed by “the idea that new knowledge germinates in old knowledge”. In defining the AM, Sfard (1998,p. 5) points to the fact that “it makes us think about the human mind as a container to be filled with certain materials and about the learner as becoming an owner of these materials”. The AM assumes that the participant is a consumer and waiting with a container to consume new information. The participant does not play the role of being innovative in their learning. “Knowledge concept, conception, idea, notion, misconception, meaning, sense, schema fact, representation, and material contents”
(Sfard 1998, p. 5) are some of the entities that emerge as a result of learning by acquisition. The transmission of knowledge from one individual to the other brings out the “role of the teacher who assists in the construction of the individual
knowledge” (Wenger & Nickles, 2017, p. 626). The focus is on an individual and what they acquire and for what purpose is individually constructed. According to Anderson
60 et al. (2007), AM assists with the description and the explanation of the changes that take place as a result of the constructed cognitive structures.
The second learning metaphor understands learning as the process of becoming a member of and participating in a community. The participation metaphor puts emphasis on learning organisations and treating organisations as living organisms where if one organ is negatively affected the optimal functioning of the body is affected.
Participative metaphor is almost synonymous with taking part and being a part and both of these expressions signalise that learning should be viewed as a process of becoming a part of a greater whole. (Sfard, 1998, p. 6) What is being suggested by Sfard is for participants to view themselves as playing a crucial role in the learning that takes place in their social setting, because “the whole and the part affect and inform each other” (Sfard, 1997, p. 6). “Learners are not recipients or constructors of knowledge but legitimate peripheral participants”
(Wenger, 1991, p. 29), legitimate because the learners’ learning “is a process in which social practice is renewed and even altered” (Wenger & Nickles, 2017, p.626).
The focus is on the development of the whole community and, therefore, the activity and the context cannot be treated separately from each other. The interaction takes place among individual learners in organised settings.
Sfard (1998) also points to the interdependence of the AM and the PM. She does this by highlighting that, “AM stresses the way in which possession determines the identity of the possessor, the PM implies that the identity of an individual like an identity of a living organism is a function of his or her being” (Sfard, 1998, p. 6). The two metaphors complement each othe.It would also depend on what one seeks to achieve; however, their outcomes are of contrasting theories “of what a theory of learning should explain (Salomon & Perkins, 1998). With the CoP concept, PM would be suitable for the suggested social learning. Some researchers view PM as
representing learning that results in skilled participants in various communities (Mason, 2007; Roth, 2015).
While the two learning metaphors complement each other, there are also tensions between them. The tension is between “possession, which entails configurational
61 changes that communities undergo as a result of shifts in discourse and interaction, which is the outcome of the processes of construction” (Taylor, p. 2), and acquired learning which is within the individual's cognitive system. Further discussion on the relationship between the two learning metaphors shall be included in the last chapter.
Wenger’s (1998) perspective on participation slightly differs from that of Sfard (1997);
he sees participation going beyond negotiating with the other members. Wenger (1998) argues that members carry this identity beyond one community to other communities; also, when they are alone what they are doing impacts on the activities of a community. He points to an example of someone preparing a presentation:
when they present to that group of people, they are with a community and their colleagues are part of that. According to Wenger (1998), through participation by mutual recognition of abilities to negotiate meaning members become part of each other if and when mutuality is recognised. Below are the key points through which Wenger (1998) clarifies his perspective on participation:
• Participation involves all kinds of relationships: disagreements as well as amicable; affectionate as well as political; aggressive as well as
interdependent;
• Through participation, the members’ experiences and those of communities are shaped;
• Participation places negotiation in the situation of our mode of membership in diverse communities. Members carry this identity with them and practice it in those communities.
Wenger (1998) cautions that participation does not necessarily entail respect and equality. How employers and employees relate “shapes others’ experiences”
(Wenger, 1998, p. 56). The employer participates at one level and the employee participates at a different level. The supervisors instruct the employees and the employees act on the instruction.
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