South African Journal of Education, Volume 43, Number 4, November 2023 1

Art. #2251, 9 pages, https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v43n4a2251

Teacher learning and collaboration in a life sciences cluster in South Africa

Ntombekhaya Mxenge and Carol Bertram

School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
[email protected]

There is increasing focus on collaborative teacher learning in South Africa. In the Mpumalanga province, the Department of
Education uses cluster meetings as a model of teacher development. Clusters are groups of teachers from different schools
who teach the same subject. In this article we focus on the learning activities that took place in 1 cluster of life sciences
teachers during 2016 and 2017. Data were generated by observing 6 cluster meetings (at provincial, district and circuit level),
and by interviewing 11 members of the cluster and 2 departmental officials. Wenger’s concepts of mutual engagement,
shared repertoire and joint enterprise were used to analyse the data. The findings show that the professional learning activities
that took place in the cluster meetings were mostly directed at improving the Grade 12 learners’ results. The subject advisors,
rather than the teachers, initiated the learning activities. The routines and resources used also focused on improving learner
results. We thus argue that a managerial discourse of professionalism underpins the cluster model of professional
development, primarily providing strategies intended to improve the pass rate of the Grade 12 learners and to monitor school-
based assessment, rather than supporting collaborative professional learning.

Keywords: managerial professionalism; professional learning; teacher clusters; teacher development

Introduction
There is a global shift towards collaborative models of professional development, such as professional learning
communities, that acknowledge the complexity of the teacher-learning process (Avalos, 2011; Bantwini, 2019;
Brodie & Borko, 2016; Korthagen, 2017; Opfer & Pedder, 2011; Wei, Darling-Hammond, Andree, Richardson
& Orphanos, 2009). Teacher development policy in South Africa also supports collaborative professional
learning by establishing professional learning communities of teachers (Department of Basic Education [DBE],
Republic of South Africa [RSA], 2015).
Subject clusters are a model of professional development that embraces collaboration and that are used by
some provincial departments of education in South Africa. i A cluster is a grouping of senior secondary teachers
who all teach the same subject at different schools, led by a teacher who is appointed as the cluster leader. In
2012, the Mpumalangaii Department of Education established various subject clusters as a model that aims to
support the teachers at school level, as many district curriculum advisors are not necessarily able to visit all
schools to provide the required support to teachers (Mpumalanga Department of Education, 2012). The focus of
the study reported on here was teacher professional learning in a cluster of life sciences teachers who taught
Grade 10 to 12 learners.
In the first section of this article, we present the literature on teacher development in South Africa and
scrutinise the concept of teacher learning, drawing on Wenger’s (1998, 2009) social learning theory informed by
learning in a community of practice as a conceptual framework. We then discuss the methods, the findings, and
conclude that the data suggest that the cluster meetings in this case study were underpinned by a discourse of
managerial professionalism focusing more on monitoring and policy compliance, than on supporting teacher-led
collaborative learning.

Literature Review
Overview of professional development in South Africa
Basic education in South Africa faces a range of challenges, such as low achievement rates, poor school
resourcing and organisation, slow curriculum coverage and teachers’ weak content knowledge (Meyer & Abel,
2015; Taylor, 2019; Venkat & Spaull, 2015). Teacher professional development is seen as a key intervention to
improve quality outcomes of schooling. Professional development activities in South Africa have been closely
linked to policy implementation in the post-apartheid era over the past 25 years. The numerous curriculum
reforms have been accompanied by centralised training workshops for teachers, which were not always
successful in conveying the underpinning principles of the reform or in changing teachers’ practice (Bantwini,
2009; Department of Education [DoE], 2009; Walton, Nel, Muller & Lebeloane, 2014).
An important policy is the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and
Development in South Africa 2011–2025. Its main aim is to “[i]mprove the quality of teacher education and
development in order to improve the quality of teachers and teaching” (DBE & Department of Higher Education
and Training [DHET], 2011:1). The policy document tasks provincial departments with providing support to
teachers at the local level. It notes that one strategy is to create professional learning communities to enhance
teacher professionalism (DBE & DHET, 2011:13).
Many studies agree that professional learning communities (PLCs) can be an effective model of
professional development and that teachers should initiate PLCs and focus on aspects of teaching that they have
2 Mxenge, Bertram

identified as important (Brodie, 2013; Brodie & development models such as PLCs or action
Borko, 2016; Feldman & Fataar, 2017; Vescio, research should enable teachers to take agency over
Ross & Adams, 2008). Studies suggest that for their own professional learning and position
PLCs to be effective, teachers should be the ones to themselves as active change agents. This reflects a
initiate PLCs and these should focus on aspects of democratic professionalism that “privileges
their practice that they have identified as important collaboration, openness, teacher agency and an
(Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009; Feldman, overt commitment to social justice” (Kennedy,
2020). In contrast, South African policy suggests 2014:695).
that PLCs should be created by the department.
This indicates that these may become instruments The cluster model of professional
of bureaucratic accountability, rather than teacher- development
initiated communities (Brodie & Borko, 2016). A model that is used in some provinces in South
There is a range of research on PLCs in South Africa supports collaborative learning in the form
Africa focusing on partnerships between teachers of teacher clusters (Jita & Mokhele, 2014; Jita &
and universities (for example, Brodie, 2013; Ndlalane, 2009). Secondary school teachers from a
Feldman & Fataar, 2017) or partnerships between range of schools in a circuit are grouped according
teachers, support agencies and the DoE (VVOB to the subject they teach. According to the
Education for Development, 2017) or research on Mpumalanga Department of Education, the cluster
clusters run by provincial departments of education meetings were established to
(Jita & Ndlalane, 2009). With this article we aim to [p]rovide teacher development opportunities;
add to our understanding of how clusters may or develop subject purpose for teachers; monitor
progress of projects/assignments/schools-based
may not operate as a learning community that activities and assessment tasks; ensure
supports collaborative teacher learning. standardisation on the moderation process on a
Different models of professional continuous basis; develop the necessary support
development, be they workshops or PLCs, are not material for teachers and learners; improve
simply ways of delivering continuing professional management of education in classrooms; regulate
development (CPD), but are also underpinned by the activities of clusters with the purpose of
assumptions about how teachers learn. Two working towards achieving quality education for
different ways of understanding learning are all; provide teachers with capacity building
described by Sfard (1998:10), who argues that in opportunities through cooperative support between
schools and develop common assessment tasks,
the “learning as acquisition” metaphor learning is and share their expertise. (Mpumalanga
viewed as the acquisition of knowledge or skills Department of Education, 2012:8)
that then become the possession of the person. This This policy is quite vague about exactly who is
is congruent with the cognitive theories of learning responsible for these tasks, e.g. who will monitor
that assume that teachers will be able to transfer the assessment tasks, and who will develop the
their learning to new contexts. Cognitive theories support material? In addition, some of these aims
do not account for the different contexts of learning indicate the purpose of providing teacher
or the problem of transfer (Kelly, 2006; Postholm, development and capacity-building opportunities
2012). In contrast, in the metaphor of “learning as for teachers, while other purposes refer to
participation” learning is regarded as a monitoring and regulating activities. Thus, a key
collaborative process that requires participation in a question that prompted this study was to what
community of people who are learning together. extent the learning opportunities afforded by the
From this perspective, learning is seen as a socio- cluster model are supportive of professional
cultural endeavour that should take the teacher’s learning and to what extent these are focused on
identity and the context into account (Kelly, 2006; monitoring teachers’ work?
Opfer & Pedder, 2011). Generally, researchers
agree that collaborative models of teacher Conceptual Framework
development are informed by a socio-cultural Since the clusters are broadly informed by the
perspective on teacher learning, which theorises notion of collaborative learning, Wenger’s concept
learning as a social practice (Brodie & Borko, of a community of practice was deemed to be
2016; Feldman, 2020; Wenger, 2009). useful to analyse the data. Wenger (1998:227)
Kennedy (2014) goes further by arguing that defines learning as “[a]n interaction between
different models of professional development personal experience and social competence.” He
reflect different underpinning discourses about understands that learning occurs by participating in
teacher professionalism. Models that are informed a practice, rather than only by an individual
by a managerial perspective on professionalism acquiring knowledge (Wenger, 2009). These
tend to understand learning as the acquisition of practices are situated within communities of
knowledge that teachers need to implement policies practice “which negotiate joint enterprises that
efficiently and focus on externally imposed members work towards, ways of engaging with
accountability. In contrast, professional each other in pursuit of these enterprises, and
 South African Journal of Education, Volume 43, Number 4, November 2023 3

repertoires or languages for negotiating meaningful provincial level.

interactions and progress towards agreed goals” At the circuit level, the teacher clusters are
(Wenger, 1998, cited in Brodie & Borko, 2016:4). co-ordinated by a cluster leader, who is selected by
People who learn together in a shared practice the life sciences subject head from among the
of human endeavour form communities of practice. Grade 12 life sciences teachers in the circuit. The
We agree with Brodie and Borko (2016:5) that provincial office appoints the cluster leader at the
PLCs, “are a special kind (i.e. a subset) of beginning of the year. He or she must have been
communities of practice with the distinguishing teaching Grade 12 for at least 3 years and shown
feature of professional learning.” excellent learner grades. The cluster leader is
A community of practice has the following responsible for organising and planning cluster
dimensions of practice, which characterise the meetings at the circuit level. The cluster leaders
learning that takes place: joint enterprise, mutual assist the curriculum advisor in managing the
engagement, and shared repertoire. The mutual clusters in the district. The main activity that takes
engagement dimension entails members engaging place at the circuit level each term is the
with one another and sharing their competences moderation of school-based assessment tasks.
and expertise (Amin & Roberts, 2008). It is how The provincial workshops are open to all life
the members of the group work together to achieve sciences teachers in the province. These are the
the shared goal while building a set of shared responsibility of the subject head who is assisted by
values (Wenger, 1998). In this study, we the curriculum advisors. Teachers from all high
understand mutual engagement to mean how the schools that are under-performing in the Grade 12
teachers do activities together in the life sciences examinations must attend these workshops. At the
cluster and why they do them. Thus, we analysed district level, content enrichment workshops focus
the data to understand how the teachers engaged on both life sciences content and pedagogy.
with one another in the learning activities that took Teachers from several circuits in a district may
place. attend the workshops, which focus on how to teach
Shared repertoire refers to the ways in which topics that learners find difficult, like genetics and
the members use different resources. Members evolution. Teachers share their best practices of
develop a shared repertoire of resources which how they improve the Grade 12 results.
would include “routines, discourse, articles,
lessons, and ways of doing things, i.e., symbols, Methods
stories, and actions” (Wenger, 1998:82). In this The study was a qualitative case study of the
study we analysed the data to identify the routines, professional learning of teachers in a life sciences
activities and ways of doing things that informed teacher cluster during 2016 and 2017 (Mxenge,
the learning as well as what artefacts were used as 2019). The cluster was purposively selected from a
resources in the learning activities. circuit in Mpumalanga because it was deemed to be
Wenger (1998:77–78) argues that a joint working well according to the provincial policy,
enterprise comprises a negotiated convergence of which requires regular meetings, subject support
the range of ideas held by the members of the and moderation of school-based assessment. The
community. “It is as a result of the collective circuit studied has 12 secondary schools and 21 life
process of negotiation that reflects the full sciences teachers.
complexity of mutual engagement; it is the Semi-structured interviews were conducted
participants’ negotiated responses to their situation with two departmental officials and 11 purposively
and, thus, belongs to them in a profound sense; and selected life sciences teachers who belonged to the
it creates among participants relations of mutual cluster (including the cluster leader). The selection
accountability that become an integral part of the criteria were that the teachers had been teaching
practice.” In this study, we consider joint enterprise Grade 10, 11 or 12 learners and were willing to
to encompass how the participants understood the participate. Five of the teachers had 2 or 3 years of
purpose and intention of the cluster activities and teaching experience (thus were considered novice
how these joint enterprises were discussed and teachers), four had 4 to 7 years of teaching
negotiated. experience and two had been teaching for more
than 15 years. The departmental officials were the
Context of the Life Sciences Cluster curriculum advisor who worked at the district level
In this study we focused on a case study of a life and reported to the subject head, and the subject
sciences cluster in Mpumalanga. There are four head who managed life sciences for the entire
educational districts in the Mpumalanga province, province. A semi-structured interview schedule
which are divided into circuits. Each circuit with open-ended questions was used to ensure that
comprises several schools. Life sciences teachers the type of activities and the purpose of the cluster
participate in different kinds of professional were systematically discussed. Interviews lasted an
learning activities at the circuit, district, and average of 45 minutes to an hour. These were audio
4 Mxenge, Bertram

recorded and transcribed. implementer and subject advisor of the annual

In addition, Author 1 was a non-participant teaching plan (ATP) (that is, what topics needed to
observer of six workshops, two of which were be covered in Term 2) and moderation and setting
offered to cluster members at a provincial level and of the examination papers. There was some
four at the district level. Data were recorded opportunity for teachers to share their challenges
through detailed field notes of observations. after the presentation. Teachers were discouraged
Documents that were circulated in the workshops from covering the topics that would not be assessed
were also used as part of the data gathered. at the end of the year and were encouraged to pay
However, the analysis of these documents is not attention to past examinations, by setting test
presented in this article. questions in a similar manner.
Regarding ethical considerations, gatekeeper The second provincial workshop observed
permission was granted by the Mpumalanga focused on the content of genetics. Two education
Department of Education and the University of experts from the local national botanical gardens
KwaZulu-Natal. The participants signed consent led the workshop which started at 18:00 on a
forms and were made aware that the research Friday afternoon and continued until the Saturday
exercise was voluntary, and that they need not afternoon. Teachers were asked which topics
participate if they were not comfortable (Babbie, within genetics were most challenging to them.
2008). They were then given an activity to discuss in
groups - the phases of meiosis and how best to
Findings teach it. This was followed by presentations from
As the study progressed, it became clear that the all groups. The presentations incorporated both
professional development activities offered at the how to teach meiosis and at the same time integrate
provincial and district level comprised large the content. The same routine was followed on the
numbers of teachers (approximately 200 at Saturday with teachers sharing best practices of
provincial level and 35–70 teachers at district teaching genetics. They also discussed the
level), which meant there was little teacher examination guidelines.
negotiation as the activities were centrally planned Thirty-five teachers attended the first
by the subject advisors. We used the concepts of district-level workshop that was observed. The
joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared workshop was presented for 2 hours after school. It
repertoire to analyse the nature of the professional was facilitated by the curriculum implementers.
learning activities at these different levels, although The focus was on the Term 3 content requirements
it became clear that these dimensions were not and the challenging topics. Teachers acknowledged
always present. We first present descriptions of the the topics which learners found difficult, which
various learning activities that took place, analyse were identified through analysis of the previous
these according to these three dimensions and then year’s results. Teachers had the opportunity to raise
critically discuss the findings. their learners’ challenges (for example, one teacher
The two provincial workshops that were noted that his learners struggled with language and
observed targeted teachers from under-performing terminology). At another one of the four
schools (schools where less than 60% of Grade 12 district-level meetings observed, the teachers’
learners pass the National Senior Certificate content knowledge of a specific topic was tested
examinations). The first observed provincial orally by the subject advisor. The curriculum
workshop was attended by 204 teachers and took advisor also provided Microsoft PowerPoint slides
place over a day and a half (Saturday and Sunday) of various topics and encouraged teachers to use
at the end of Term 1, 2017. There were three kinds these in their lessons.
of learning activities: presentations given by the At both provincial and district-level
departmental officials, teacher group work and workshops a key activity was the analysis of the
teacher group presentations. Firstly, the subject previous terms’ examination results, which was led
advisor gave a presentation on the challenges that by the curriculum implementers. This entailed both
learners faced in the topics of evolution and comparing the results of schools in the circuits and
genetics, which are topics that the Grade 12 identifying the topics in which learners performed
learners struggled with in the previous year’s most poorly. In the workshops observed, teachers
examination. Teachers were then divided into were not asked to discuss the learners’ underlying
groups of about 15 to 20 teachers to discuss how conceptual misunderstandings or any remedial
they would best teach one of three topics: evolution strategies that might improve learners’
by natural selection, Lamarckism and Darwinism, understanding. Instead, the curriculum advisor
and punctuated equilibrium. For the second suggested that study guides, which focus on
activity, five groups were selected to present to the memorisation of content, were the solution to
whole group on their topic, with a focus on the improving results.
content, rather than the teaching strategies. The At the circuit-level meetings 21 teachers from
third activity was a presentation by the curriculum 12 different schools attended. Two main activities
 South African Journal of Education, Volume 43, Number 4, November 2023 5

were carried out, namely moderation of school- In the four district-level workshops observed,
based assessment and team teaching. there was some opportunity for mutual
Moderation of school-based assessment took engagement. The curriculum advisor called on
place at the circuit level. The purpose of the selected teachers to share teaching strategies that
moderation activity was for the cluster leader to they found to be worthwhile. Two early-career
monitor the teachers’ progress in covering the teachers indicated in their interviews that they
curriculum, meeting the assessment requirements found this sharing of teaching methods very useful:
and to moderate the consistency of the marking of Because in these meetings we help each other by
school-based assessments. Learners’ first term giving methods on how to teach these difficult
assessment tasks are marked by the teachers at topics. So, in a way I say they really help me
school. A teacher’s file must contain the ATP, because I can now teach these two topics [meiosis
and evolution] but not to the desired level or
lesson plans, the assessment plan and the marked expected level of the department. (Bume, 3 years
assessment tasks. These are checked by the head of teaching experience)
department at the school and then by the cluster There was a problem with that topic evolution, on
leader in the cluster meeting. The cluster leader sits how are you going to start teaching evolution?
at a table and the teachers queue up to hand in their How can you explain so that the learners can
files to be checked. understand you if you are talking about
Team teaching involves one teacher teaching evolution...? So, they choose one teacher who is
learners from several schools in a central venue, good at explaining, discussing, and explaining all
observed by other teachers. Two teachers, Ziduli about evolution. So, that guy, he explained a lot
about evolution … Even myself, I learned
and Slhoqo noted that teachers in their cluster something from that topic. (Marhoza, 3 years
(from 12 secondary schools) arranged for all their teaching experience)
Grade 12 learners to meet in a central venue, where At the circuit level, Ziduli noted that teachers
teachers who had expertise in teaching particular organise team teaching opportunities for their
topics taught all the learners. learners, and that teachers in the cluster share
contact details and have created a WhatsApp group
Mutual Engagement: Learning Activities and for sharing important information. This was the
Sharing Expertise
only example of teachers taking initiative for their
According to Wenger (1998), the mutual
own professional growth.
engagement dimension entails members of a Yes, the cluster teachings that we organise here is
community engaging with one another and sharing that … we organise all our learners … they go to
their competences and expertise. The nature of the a particular place. We organise a centre where
teachers’ working together and the learning they meet on weekends and then we invite
activities that they engaged in was different at the teachers from different schools to come and teach
three system levels as shown in the previous the different topics. (Ziduli, 7 years teaching
section. experience)
Observation of two provincial workshops and
four district-level workshops indicated that Shared Repertoire: Learning from Activities,
Tools, and Discourses
departmental curriculum advisors initiated and
Wenger (1998) argues that a community of practice
planned most of the activities at these workshops.
develops a shared repertoire of communal
Teachers could not influence the direction that the
resources that includes the ways in which the
workshop might take as the departmental officials
members engage in activities, the discourses and
managed the process. Teachers were able to raise
the resources used. “A shared repertoire refers to
challenges linked to content or pedagogy they
ways of doing things, using words and tools, as
experienced in the classroom but not to other
well as concepts that the community has produced
concerns. For example, when a teacher in a district
or adopted, throughout its history, that can be
meeting complained that a lesson of 40 minutes
reified in shared histories and documents”
was too short to teach one topic, the curriculum
(Johannesson, 2022:414).
advisor simply said that the teacher needed to
Observation of the two provincial, four
discuss the problem with her head of department at
district workshops and circuit-level moderation
school.
showed that these followed the same routines or
For both of the provincial workshops, it was
activities. These routines included presentations of
clear that the size of the teacher groups meant that
the content of challenging life sciences topics (such
there was not much opportunity for mutual
as genetics and evolution). Thereafter, groups of
engagement, although the task given did allow
teachers were given instructions for a group
some teachers to share their expertise. Much of the
activity based on the topic. When they had finished,
workshop time was taken up with presentations of
they presented this to the entire group. The
policy documents like the ATPs and the
moderation of school-based assessment at the
examination guidelines. Teachers were not given
circuit level also followed the same routine each
opportunities to negotiate the activities.
term. However, there was no evidence that the
6 Mxenge, Bertram

teachers established these routines, except that mutual accountability relations born from joint
organising team teaching of learners in central enterprise negotiations include “what matters and
venues. what does not, what to do and not to do, what to
Wenger (1998:83) describes discourse as a pay attention to and what to ignore, what to talk
means of “creating meaningful statements about the about and what to leave unsaid, what to justify and
world.” The discourse in the workshops observed what to take for granted, what to display and what
supported the notion that the most important goal to withhold.”
was to ensure that the Grade 12 learners passed the Both departmental officials said that they
examination. In one district-level workshop, the understood the clusters as a structure that aimed to
subject advisor exhorted teachers to stick closely to enhance the teachers’ capacity so that the Grade 12
the examination guide. In another, the curriculum pass rate improved. The focus was on teachers
advisor told teachers to emphasise the definitions being “taught” and “capacitated” reflecting a deficit
of scientific terms to their learners, as this section discourse. The subject head, Punky, said the
of the examination paper carried more marks. following about the teachers:
Pharara, who has been teaching life sciences for 2 They will be capacitated; they will be taught here
years, noted this in her interview: for certain days so that they can improve the
It is very important to clearly note the terms results in their clusters and they are also
because there are a lot of marks for learning the responsible for their clusters in the sense that after
terms. If learners master the terms, as we have to a quarterly test or the June exams they are
tell them the structure of the question paper, you expected to analyse the results of their cluster.
will find that in the first section learners [could While teachers explained their understanding of
gain] a lot of marks…. the purpose in different ways, the main focus was
In one district-level workshop, a teacher was on being able to fulfil the curriculum coverage
scolded when he wanted to focus on other areas requirements, understand the assessment policy
that were not to be assessed at the end of the year. and to analyse the examination papers, so that
Teachers were advised on how to achieve a 100% teaching could focus on these topics.
pass rate, with tips that included teaching their The purpose of the intervention workshops is to
learners terminology (“definition of terms” is an unpack the syllabus so each and every teacher
important section of the life sciences examination must be aware on what to teach every term … and
paper), using previous years’ question papers and also the tests that they have to conduct and also
the informal test and the formal test which is the
adhering to examination guidelines. exams. (Marhoza, 3 years teaching experience)
The life sciences district and provincial Eh … I think the cluster meetings are there to
workshops used artefacts or resources that were make us see where we are with our syllabi, to
provided by the subject advisor such as past Grade notice whether you are on the right track or you
12 examination papers, examination memoranda, are behind (Duke, 7 years teaching experience).
examination guidelines and Microsoft PowerPoint To help each other, to discuss the papers, for
slides for teachers to use for teaching specific example after we have written a paper we need to
topics like evolution or genetics. However, none of discuss to see the difficulty of the paper and to
these were created by teachers. discuss the memo if it’s wrong or then if the paper
was difficult then we want to see the challenges
It was clear that the provincial DoE directs the then if there are difficult topics, we can discuss
routines and provides the artefacts. The resources these, so that we can help each other, so that
were mostly policy documents that regulate teaching will be fruitful. (Slhoqo, 7 years teaching
teachers’ work. The workshop routines did not experience).
allow teachers to create their own teaching Slhoqo regarded the purpose of the clusters for
resources. Thus, there was no shared repertoire in teachers to support one another, although she also
the sense of teachers working together to create framed this support as being in relation to
resources. The focus on “best practice” seems to improving learners’ achievement.
assume a one-size-fits-all approach that does not From the observations and interview data,
consider the diversity of the learners, the contextual there did not appear to be a need for negotiation
conditions nor the varied needs of teachers in regarding the purpose of the cluster activities as
different schools. both teachers and officials agreed that the main
goal was improving the learners’ achievement. This
Joint Enterprise: Purpose of the Cluster may be because these were high school teachers
Meetings with a specific focus on the Grade 12 year.
Wenger (1998:1) refers to common purpose as one However, it is certainly problematic that the
of the aspects of “joint enterprise” of a community teachers and the departmental official regarded the
of practice. In this section, we focus on the ways in purpose of professional development in such a
which the participants talked about the purpose of passive and narrow way. This does not support
the cluster and on how the understandings of the teacher participation and initiative (Bertram &
purpose were negotiated. Wenger (1998:81) argues Mxenge, 2023).
 South African Journal of Education, Volume 43, Number 4, November 2023 7

Discussion of the Findings strong belief in learning as participation as

The data show that the provincial DoE sets the espoused by socio-cultural learning theories.
agenda for the cluster meetings and their main Teachers, particularly novices, in the study
objective is to improve the performance of the articulated that they learned from the activities in
learners in the Grade 12 life sciences examination. the provincial and district-level workshops,
This joint enterprise was not negotiated with specifically how to teach particular topics better,
teachers. The focus of the activities and discussions which was positive. The official curriculum states
at provincial and district level was on teachers that the purposes of learning life sciences are for
delivering the prescribed curriculum content with the learners to develop an in-depth knowledge of
the aim of improving the matric results at the end biological concepts, and to be able to critically
of each year. This is a narrow understanding of the evaluate and debate scientific issues and processes;
purpose of schooling, although it is one that is to appreciate the importance of conservation;
increasingly common (Labaree, 2014). become environmentally-aware citizens and to
A key focus of the provincial and district- develop scientific ways of thinking (DBE, RSA,
level workshops was on improving teachers’ 2011). However, these expansive purposes of
content knowledge of topics that learners find learning life sciences were not emphasised in the
difficult, providing different teaching strategies, observed cluster meetings. The department’s
focusing on ensuring that learners meet the managerial approach appears to overlook the
examination demands (e.g. by teaching the broader purposes of learning life sciences and
definitions of terms very explicitly). There was focuses on the measurement of the learners’
some teacher engagement in the smaller groups in performance.
these meetings, although the discussion tasks were Biesta (2015) cautions that a focus on
determined by the departmental officials and not by measurement only engages with one of the
the teachers. At the circuit level, teachers took purposes of education, namely, the purpose of
more initiative by arranging team-teaching sessions qualification. It compromises the fulfilment of
for their learners. However, the purpose of this education’s other purposes of socialisation and
team-teaching support was still to improve the subjectification. Socialisation refers to how
learners’ results. The repertoire of resources used in education enables us to become members of
the workshops (examination papers, examination particular social, cultural, and political orders and
guides, database of results per school, Microsoft subjectification refers to the individual becoming
PowerPoint presentations) were created by the autonomous and independent in their thinking.
subject advisors and not by the teachers and could Biesta (2009) argues that all three of these purposes
thus not be called a shared repertoire. The analysis of education are important. One of the aims of
makes it clear that the aspects of Wenger’s South Africa’s curriculum is for learners to develop
framework of shared repertoires, mutual the knowledge, skills and values that will enable
engagement and a negotiated joint enterprise were both self-fulfilment and meaningful participation in
not strongly present. society. However, it seems that these broader
We thus argue that a managerial discourse of purposes of socialisation and personal development
professionalism underpins the cluster model of are overshadowed by an obsession with measuring
professional development in this case study. This learner achievement, which is reflected in the
means that teacher professionalism is defined as purposes of professional development offered by
teachers complying with policy requirements and the provincial DoE.
external regulations (Day & Sachs, 2004). The
managerial discourse approach is characterised by Conclusion
bureaucratic accountability and monitoring, rather Given the reality that only half of all children who
than a holistic focus on teachers’ work and enrol in Grade 1 will reach Grade 12 (Spaull,
professional learning. While research on PLCs 2015), perhaps this managerial stance is
usually emphasises the importance of collaborative appropriate to strengthen the current outcomes of
learning that is initiated by teachers, the cluster the schooling system. The downside is that it
activities at district and provincial level did not weakens teachers’ capacity to take agency for their
reflect much teacher-initiated collaboration. One of professional learning and to tailor it towards their
the key practices advocated by social practice specific needs. The current policy on teacher
theory is collaborative learning, which is learning development notes that it “places teachers firmly at
by co-participating in a community (Wenger, the centre of all efforts to improve teacher
2009). In contrast, the teacher-learning theory that development and enables teachers to take
underpins these workshops appeared to be substantial responsibility for their own
behaviourist in nature, which understands learning development” (DBE & DHET, 2011:1). This case
as acquisition rather than as participation (Sfard, study shows that this was not happening in this
1998). It seems clear that the cluster model of cluster in Mpumalanga and we recommend that
professional development is not informed by a teachers are given more opportunity to drive their
8 Mxenge, Bertram

own professional learning, which should be more of Education, 50(1):75–87.

expansive than the narrow goal of improving https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12109
learner results. Of course, this means that teachers Brodie K 2013. The power of professional learning
need to be willing to take on this responsibility and communities. Education as Change, 17(1):5–18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/16823206.2013.773929
imagine themselves as agents with professional Brodie K & Borko H (eds.) 2016. Professional learning
judgement who take initiative for their own communities in South African schools and teacher
professional learning (Calvert, 2016). education programmes. Cape Town, South Africa:
HSRC Press.
Authors’ Contributions Calvert L 2016. Moving from compliance to agency.
Data were generated by Ntombi Mxenge for her What teachers need to make professional learning
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) study at the University work. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward and NCTAF.
of KwaZulu-Natal. Both authors had an equal part Darling-Hammond L & Richardson N 2009. Teacher
in the conceptualising and writing of this article. learning: What matters. Educational Leadership,
66(5):46–53. Available at
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Notes
i. While education policy is promulgated at a national content/uploads/teacher-learning-what-matters.pdf.
level in South Africa, each of the nine provinces has a Accessed 27 November 2023.
provincial department of education that is responsible Day C & Sachs J 2004. Professionalism, performativity
for implementing policy. and empowerment: Discourses in the politics,
ii. Mpumalanga has a population of 4 million people, of policies and purposes of continuing professional
which 1,045,972 are learners in schools. This represents development. In C Day & J Sachs (eds).
8.2% of all learners in South Africa. There are 34,825 International handbook on the continuing
teachers in Mpumalanga, which is 8.0% of all teachers
professional development of teachers. Maidenhead,
in South Africa (DBE, RSA, 2019).
iii. The data are drawn from the first author’s PhD study. England: Open University Press.
iv. DATES: Received: 16 August 2021; Revised: 5 June Department of Basic Education, Republic of South
2023; Accepted: 3 August 2023; Published: 30 Africa 2011. Curriculum and Assessment Policy
November 2023. Statement Grades 10–12: Life Sciences. Pretoria:
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