Teacher learning during the implementation of the Index for Inclusion in a primary school

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was designed to explore affordances and constraints to teacher learning as workplacelearning during a time of change as initiated by the Index for Inclusion process. In particular the studyinvestigated features on the macro-social and macro-educational level that impact on teacher learningin the workplace and the affordances and constraints to teacher learning that could be identified on theinstitutional-community plane as the pivotal plane of analysis for this study. It also explored featureson the personal plane that impact teacher learning in the workplace. The theoretical framework ofcultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) provided a broad platform from which to engage with thestudy. In particular, the work of Engeström, as a contemporary contributor in the field of CHAT,informed this study. The investigation into teacher learning in the workplace during a time of changewas designed as a critical ethnographic study and was conducted in a primary school in adisadvantaged community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A qualitative methodologywas employed. The study allowed for a critical in-depth analysis of affordances and constraints toteacher learning in the workplace by making use of an abductive process of data analysis andpresentation, which implies a movement between an inductive and deductive process of knowledgecreation.The data was presented in broad themes, an ethnographic narrative using the triangular structure ofactivity as developed by Engeström, and in pen sketches depicting the learning trajectories of twoteachers. The data revealed that the Index for Inclusion employed as tool of change in this study didindeed allow for teacher learning for inclusion in the workplace. It raised awareness of inclusiveeducation, contributed to a shared language for inclusion in the school and created the platform forteachers to engage with own attitudes and practices in a safe and supportive environment. Certainteachers attested to significant learning gains. However, the study also highlighted how a school couldact as a restrictive environment for teacher learning and the complex processes involved in changingsuch an environment to become more expansive in support of teacher learning for inclusion. Severalfactors acted as severe constraints to teacher learning. On the macro-social level, poverty and theconsequences of apartheid in South Africa acted as significant constraints to expansive teacherlearning. With regard to the macro-educational level, teachers struggled with innovation overload andthe absence of meaningful training and support for change that negatively affected their morale,motivation and self-efficacy. On the institutional level the leadership approach in the school provedparticularly detrimental to expansive teacher learning. Teacher cognition, attitude and emotion alsoconstrained their own engagement with the learning opportunity afforded by the Index for Inclusionprocess in the school. The students were not allowed a platform for their voices to be heard.Furthermore, neither their parents nor the community was invited into collaborative partnerships withthe staff. On the personal level the study engaged with the possibility that individual teachers couldgradually bring the necessary changes into the school on the grounds of their own positive learningexperience through the Index for Inclusion process. The hope for change in the school was thusembodied in individual teachers' agency, energy and incentive to work towards sustaining the progressthat had been made by means of the Index for Inclusion process in the school.Keywords: teacher learning, workplace learning, inclusive education, Index for Inclusion, culturalhistoricalactivity theory (CHAT).

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University