Practice Community Identity Meaning
2.3 Dimensions of teacher knowledge
2.3.3 Teacher’s Professional Identity and Beliefs
Content knowledge and PCK are dependent on each other and are very closely linked. ML is a complex subject which deals with the real world. Hence teachers, with the knowledge that they possess, have to develop contexts and have the capacity to transform the content knowledge and present it to the learners. Innovative teaching, keeping in mind the multicultural and diverse society within which teachers’ work, the language barriers faced by teachers and learners and the misconceptions that occur while reading a context is a challenge for the teacher within the South African context. These are some of the aspects researched.
The formation of tasks for class based exercises and assessments are all part of PCK that a teacher needs to know and the task is to find how the teacher has developed professionally in terms of PCK.
(2012) also revealed that the participants who studied the ACEML certificate changed in terms of their identity and were able to validate the usefulness of ML in real life situations.
Each teacher’s professional identity is “emphasised by his sense of belonging and participating in a group by sharing ideas, knowledge and expertise” according to (Wenger, 2000, p.239). By being active participants in the ACEML program Wenger goes on further to state that “as trajectories, our identities incorporate the past and the future in the very process of negotiating the present….. Learning events and forms of participation are thus defined by the current engagement they afford as well as by their location on a trajectory.” (Wenger, 1998, p.155). This was clearly evident in their activities involving task based assessment and lesson presentations (Nel, 2012) The author also states that as the person talks about their experiences in terms of what they have learnt, reflects changes in their identity, since all this meaning that is attached to the experiences forms identity. The research on professional development is underpinned by a situated learning perspective, since learning is meant for participating, sharing community building, belonging and communicating (Sfard, 2008). The teachers professional development encompasses the knowledge that he has gained through studies and the ability to recognise, find and use these resources productively in any given environment, ‘creating a situation where learning to teach will take place. It can also be observed that teachers teach according to the manner in which they understand and perceive their subject and this means that to improve teaching and learning in the classroom teacher’s content knowledge and competence must be improved and developed. A teacher’s professional identity is inclusive of both cognitive and socio-cultural aspects of identity and identity construction. It is an aspect that the teacher uses to make sense of oneself and not something that one has. This cognitive and socio cultural aspect of identity is what makes every educator unique in the classroom (Peressini, Borko, Romagnano, Knuth & Willis;
2004). (Kriek, J.,Grayson,D., 2009, p.187) stated that teacher professionalism ‘is about the quality of practice that a teacher demonstrates, and it is the integration of the content knowledge teaching approaches and the professional attitudes of the teacher that makes professional development holistic.
Thus mastery of the profession of mathematics teaching involves a dynamic process of becoming a confident mathematics teacher in relation to the components of meaning, practice identity and community. (Graven, 2002, p165). Nel (2012) asserts that “teachers who learn to become professionals through a process of transformation, during which their identity changes.” (Nel, 2012, p145) Like Graven (2006), Thembela (2012) stated that the development of self-confidence is one of the main emerging themes of his study. Thembela (2012) identified three categories of identity that emerged from his study which was similar to Nel (2009):
“(i) teachers foregrounded the new ML identity and back grounded their previous identity;
(ii) teachers who had a dual identity – the one they had before and a new ML identity;
(iii) those whose ML identity was less strong, with their previous identity remaining strong.”
Teachers’ beliefs according to Dilts (1999) is defined as “as judgements and evaluations that teachers make about themselves and their teachings.” Dilts (1999). Sidiropoulos (2008) also stated that “beliefs are wide-ranging based on personal and societal constructs…….. like
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attitudes they are difficult to measure and ascertain.” (Sidiropoulos, 2008, p27). A teachers identity and confidence levels also changes when their beliefs in the subject changes.
According to Thembela (2012) “some teachers emerged from the study as reflective practitioners who were able to look into their own teaching. They were able to point to specific changes and improvements which they saw themselves and in teaching as a result of participating in the ACEML program.” (Thembela, 2012, p101). Some teachers had not studied at all after they had qualified as teachers according to Thembela (2012) “teachers who had not been studying at all for very long periods were revived in seeking professional development through the ACEML program ……… some teachers are currently furthering their studies …….two are engaged in their masters studies.” (Thembela, 2012, p110).
Learner achievement and teacher attitudes and beliefs about mathematics have been found to affect the way teachers interpret and teach curriculum. According to Barlow and Reddish,
“Beliefs impact practices because beliefs affect how teachers see their students, how they view the practices of other teachers, and how they accept the ideas given to them to develop their practice – whether those ideas are introduced through staff development, content courses, or pedagogy courses.” (Barlow and Reddish, 2006, p 145). These beliefs must be addressed with all teachers before we can expect improvement in learner achievement.
Due to the changes that have taken place in education, in South Africa, came the birth of a new subject ML, which was taught by many non-mathematics teachers. The study researches the teachers’ beliefs in themselves as well as the subject ML and investigates to what extent, and if there has been any changes in the identities of the teachers by comparing Nels (2012) studies to this research.
2.4 Summary
There are several theories that have been discussed following a time span from Shulman (1986) to Thembela (2012). However the work of Lave and Wenger (1991), Wenger (1998) and subsequently the work of Graven (2002) and Benita Nel (2012) influenced my study immensely. There was a strong emergence of Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger’s work based on the four components of learning: meaning, practice, community and identity that arose out of the data and findings in my research. Like Graven (2002) and Nel (2012) I used this theory as a frame of my analysis.
The aim of my research is to explore the ways in which the ACEML program at the NMMU influenced the professional development of the participant teachers. The questions that I used to guide me through this research involved finding out what were some of the contributions made by the ACEML programme towards the professional development of the teachers and how was the professional development enhanced. Since these teachers belonged to and participated within a community of NMMU and UKZN and within a brand new subject, they learnt new content knowledge, new pedagogic content knowledge, a change in knowledge and beliefs and identity was expected. A synopsis of Shulmans (1986), Ball et al (2008), Sullivan (2009), Grossman (1990) and Peressini et al (2004) theory on content knowledge, and pedagogic content knowledge is described so that the link is visible during the analysis of the data and the resultant theory. Attention is also given to Nel’s (2012) theory where learner assessments and tasks that have been prepared by the parpants influence the teacher’s identity
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and beliefs. Using Lave and Wenger’s (1991) and Wenger’s (1998), community of practice, Graven (2002), Nel (2012) and Thembela (2012) found that “confidence” was another component that highlights itself through the acquisition of content knowledge and PCK.
Graven (2002) community of practice involving PLESME is a clear indication of how the participants in her research were able to work with each other and were able to emulate the tutors, share knowledge, ideas and teaching skills and strategies with their peers especially in task designs, assessments, lesson presentations and group discussion and learning by different methods as well as learning by engaging with different resources.
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