Teachers Roles’ and Professional Learning in Communities of Practice Supported by Technology in Schools

This article explores four roles of teachers in classrooms using computers, from the perspective of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). It reports on an indepth study undertaken in 12 schools, and shows that teachers appropriated technology in a range of ways to help them create classroom communities that build knowledge. Some also acted as brokers to cross classroom and school boundaries, engaging in professional learning through curriculum projects with other teachers and their students as new communities of practice formed. However, while such projects were initiated and driven by individuals and groups of teachers, their success required support through school leadership and organization and statewide technology infrastructures and funding. ********** In conjunction with the introduction of computers and the spread of constructivist teaching approaches, there has been much discussion about the changing role of teachers. Technology forces teachers to relinquish power over classroom knowledge (McRae, Ainsworth, Groves, Rowland, & Zbar, 2001) and the expectation of constructivism is that teachers act as facilitators of student learning rather than experts dispensing knowledge in a top-down fashion (Brooks & Brooks, 1993). Changing roles require new learning, and strong arguments are put for ongoing professional development by Darling-Hammond (2000) and Beare (2001), among others. The practice of teaching has often occurred behind closed doors, limiting school-based collaborative teacher development, and leading to suggestions that significant structural changes in education systems and in schools are required (Department of Education Science and Training, 2001). There have also been calls for teachers within and across schools to collaborate in professional learning teams, and in broader clusters or communities of practice, both face-to-face and online. However, the top-down nature of some of these programs can be in tension with a constructivist view of teacher learning. This article considers the roles teachers play in classrooms using computers and describes in some detail, how one community of practice emerged as teachers worked together across school boundaries. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Although academics and policy makers encourage clusters, networks and communities to support teacher and student learning and knowledge building (Hargreaves, 2003), how these operate within and across classrooms using computers has been rarely documented. This article addresses two major questions: what roles do knowledge-building teachers play in classrooms using computers and what characteristics of communities of practice are evident in these classrooms? Knowledge-building teachers are identified by their attitudes and behavior: being learning-centered, encouraging contributions to a pool of knowledge, taking responsibility for their own and others' learning and making connections across boundaries. The article reports on a three-year study that was undertaken in Years 5-9 classrooms (student ages 10-15 years) in primary (elementary) and secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. These "middle years of schooling" are a focus of the government's attention, due to concerns about student performance and the transition between primary and secondary settings, which takes place at the end of Year 6. The purpose of the study was to provide evidence of practice that could inform teacher development policy. THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The research was based on four roles of teachers--(a) designing the learning environment, (b) managing people and resources, (c) mediating student learning, and (d) improving practice--that had been developed from the literature and initial observations in classrooms. The roles were fleshed out over the period of the study using a qualitative approach, based particularly on observation and reflective conversation with teacher participants. Since the notion of teachers as learners was expressed frequently, this was seen as an important perspective in terms of their interaction with students. …