There is evidence that Vygotsky’s ideas have been articulated in the South African context by different researchers (such as Kizito, 2015, Hardman 2005, 2008, Mukeredzi, 2009). For example, Hardman (2005) has used CHAT in the designing and planning of various courses in Mathematics. Hardman (2008) has also used CHAT in the study of teacher/ student interaction in classroom. It has also been used to understand professional development experiences of professionally unqualified teachers in rural secondary schools (Mukeredzi, 2009).
CHAT is described as: “a psychological and multi-disciplinary theory with a naturalistic emphasis that offers a framework for describing activity and provides a set of perspectives on practice that interlink individual and social levels” (Nunez, 2009, p. 53). Duran (2011) argues that there is no singular interpretation of CHAT but the basic tenets of the theory as adopted by contemporary theorists frame the human action in terms of learning and acquisition of adaptive socio-cultural practices. Vygotsky postulated that the mind is socially constructed (Hardman, 2008).
The relevance of CHAT in this study starts with Vygotsky’s swing of ideas from a biologically based understanding of human behaviour to the socio-cultural explanation of
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activity. Vygotsky considered learning as a shared collective process in a responsive social context (Gindis, 1999). However, the first generation was not suitable for my study except for certain aspects such as the cultural-historical approach. The cultural-historical approach tries to understand the influence of social practices on human development (Hedegaard, Chaiklin,
& Jansen, 2002). In line with the above-mentioned theorists, social practice is also defined as a structured human tradition for interaction around specific tasks and goals. This study on teacher learning in two teacher learning communities recognises that learning in TLCs is a social activity. Therefore, Vygotsky’s idea foregrounds the communicative aspect of teacher learning in which knowledge is collectively constructed and shared. Hence this study of teacher learning in teacher learning communities assumes that knowledge is constructed during the communicative interaction amongst teachers in their teacher learning communities.
CHAT focuses on “how people learn through collective engagement in a particular activity, meaning that “what happens conceptually is not isolated from practical collective activity”
(Mukeredzi 2009, p. 72, drawing on Worthen and Berry 2004). Furthermore, Saka, Southerland and Brooks (2009) elaborate by saying that participation in external activity causes individuals to shape the external activity in which they engage. In relation to this study, learning was also understood; “through the process of internalisation and externalisation in response to contradiction as well as appropriation of available cultural resources in order to design a novel form of practice” (Saka, Southerland & Brooks 2009, p.
100). For instance, in the context of this study, subsequent to internalisation (learning) externalisation may be manifest when teachers are able to perform assigned tasks based on that learning. However, this does not necessarily mean that learning and mastery can take place without contradictions. As indicated in the CHAT principles, contradictions arise when the multi-voicedness in the activity come into conflict within each of the elements, between the elements or among the activity systems. Identifying contradictions in this study was important because contradiction may be a source of change and development in activity system.
CHAT posits that learning and activity cannot be separated (Wearn, Rees, Bradley & Vnuk, 2008). This statement is further supported by Lagrange 2012 in her evaluative study of the contribution of activity theory. She contends that knowledge is a product of human activity deeply rooted in society. Since learning is assumed to be socially constructed, CHAT will provide the researcher with an opportunity to better understand how learning occurs.
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According to Gindis (1999) learning is a complex, subjective process which is configured as a moment of personality development throughout human life. Echoing the third generation of CHAT, he states that it is also a complex social process that integrates the quality of many different agencies. In relation to this study different agencies can be the members of the community in the activity system.
The main strength of CHAT in this study is that it was used as both a theoretical and methodological frame to understand how teacher learning happens in two identified teacher learning communities. I looked at what was happening in the workshops of the Commerce Teachers’ Association and in the Mathematics Group in Zethembe District. From a CHAT perspective, workshops represent the activity systems of the Commerce Teachers’
Association and the Mathematics Group. In this study, as each workshop was viewed as an activity system, the CHAT model was used to show the relationship between all human and non-human elements of the workshops. Figure 6 provides an example of a CHAT model of the Commerce Teachers’ Association and the Mathematics Group.
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Figure 6: Activity System of Commerce Teachers ’Association and Mathematics Group
Subject: Commerce teachers who are teaching Accounting, Business Studies and Economics in Zethembe District. In the Mathematics Group the subject is the group of Mathematics teachers from one circuit in the Zethembe District.
Object: In the Commerce Teachers’ Association learning to revise with Grade 12 learners in order to improve learners’ performance in Grade 12 final examinations while in the Mathematics Group it is learning and teaching of Mathematics.
Rules: Department of Basic Education rules and regulations, South African Council of Educators (SACE) rules, policies and policy guidelines such as CAPS, Commerce Teachers’
Association Constitution rules, and Non- Governmental Organisations’ rules for the Mathematics teachers.
Tools & signs (knowledge, experience, language)
etc.)venue Outcomes:
revision skills/
master Maths
Subject: Commerce and Mathematics teachers
Object: commerce teachers learn revise/learning and teaching of Mathematics
Rules: DoE policies, CAPS, Commerce constitution
Community, DBE officials, teacher unions, book publishers, NGOs Facilitators
Division of labour:
the roles and tasks of teachers as subjects and community
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Community: The Commerce and Mathematics subject advisors, Chief Education Specialist, Deputy Chief Education Specialist, teacher unions, book publishers, some local businesses who offer donations to Commerce Teachers’ Association, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that sponsor the Mathematics Group and those NGO facilitators.
Division of labour: The roles and tasks of teachers as subjects and as community.
Tools: The tangible and non-tangible and resources used as mediating artefacts during the workshops.
Outcome (or ideal expected result): improvement in Commerce teaching /revising with learners and improvement of learning and teaching of Mathematics.
The study used CHAT elements and principles to give the picture of what was happening in the activities of the Commerce Teachers’ Association and the Mathematics Group in the Zethembe District. CHAT was also used as a methodological lens at the data collection stage and for data analysis. In addition, I used a CHAT dialectical analysis. A dialectical analysis examines how different elements or aspects of the activity system are related appositionally, pulling in different directions (Timmis, 2014, p.23). CHAT is useful in this study because it offers a tool to understand learning that takes place in a setting where people are working together on a shared task or object to be examined. However, CHAT has some limitations in this study which are presented in the next section.