Abstract
This article investigates the participation enablers and learning affordances identified by teachers through participation within an in-service community of practice (CoP) of primary teachers called the Numeracy Inquiry Community of Leader Educators (NICLE) in the Eastern Cape. The article draws on three qualitative sources of data: the annual teacher questionnaires of 42 participating teachers, interview data from 8 of the 42 sampled teachers and reflective journal entries of these 8 teachers over the first 2 years of NICLE. All three data sets point to teachers foregrounding the affordances and enablers of NICLE participation across the fundamental elements of a CoP, namely domain, community and practice. We illuminate the way in which teachers’ identification of learning affordances relates to these three structural features of a CoP. In concluding, we argue that explicit consideration of these structural elements, and their interrelationship in the design of in-service programmes, could enable clearer articulation of programme aspects and support reflection on the coherence between teacher feedback on these as programmes evolve.
Highlights
Introduction and contextSouth African primary education, and mathematics education in particular, is struggling to overcome the lingering effects of its apartheid past
Inequality continues along racial lines with the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) indicating that South Africa was the lowest performing of 50 countries with the largest variation in scores (Reddy 2006)
The recent national teacher development strategy promotes the establishment of professional teacher communities, ‘based on the vision that learning is more effective when it takes place within a community of professionals’ (DBE 2015:6)
Summary
South African primary education, and mathematics education in particular, is struggling to overcome the lingering effects of its apartheid past. Key aspects of the intended Numeracy Inquiry Community of Leader Educators practice The NICLE practice included the provision of a range of resources including session handouts (usually summarising key ideas or activities) and resources for use with learners in class. These resources captured in written or physical form some of the key aspects of the NICLE joint enterprise. While university-based members brought research-informed resources and local, national and international networks of mathematics education experts to engage and share key resources with, NICLE teachers brought the critical experiences of using such resources in local contexts. The sharing of ideas by teachers increased and NICLE teachers themselves presented workshops including lesson demonstrations
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