Multimembership in Communities of Practice An EFL Teacher’s Professional Development.docVIP

The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language 窗体顶端 ? 窗体底端 Home About TESL-EJ All Issues Books How to Submit Editorial Board Access Sitemap Multi-membership in Communities of Practice: An EFL Teacher’s Professional Development September 2012–Volume 16, Number 2 Takako NishinoKanda University of International Studies, Japan Abstract This study investigates the professional development of one EFL teacher, Gen, through narrative analysis and the notion of community of practice (CoP) (Lave Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). This study addresses two questions: How did a Japanese high school teacher generate context-appropriate pedagogy? How did multi-membership in CoPs influence this teacher’s learning? Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews. Gen’s story reveals that he belongs to multiple CoPs and that in order to generate context-appropriate pedagogy, he learns from other members of his CoPs by talking to them, observing their lessons, and sharing teaching activities. Gen’s story also indicates that members of local CoPs who have TESOL backgrounds connect him to the “English-speaking Western TESOL” community (Holliday, 2005). These findings highlight the importance of teachers belonging to multiple CoPs. This study also suggests the need for reconceptualizing teacher education from a knowledge transmission metaphor to a participant metaphor. Introduction A?community of practice?(CoP) is defined as a group of people who share social practices and work together toward common goals (Lave Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Learning can be considered active participation in the practice itself and a lot of professional development takes place as a result of participation in particular CoPs. A CoP perspective may prove useful in helping us understand teachers’ learning in practice and reconceptualizing teacher education (Freeman Johnson, 1998; 2004). With this in mind, I used a specific CoP as a conceptual framework for my study of professional