Contribution
Description: This paper, drawing on the research framework and preliminary findings of an ethnographic study, discusses the practice of blending various epistemological and methodological assumptions and the potential of using this 'bricolage approach' to explore teachers' knowledge transformation and professional development in the Chinese context. The Danwei workplace community, an embedded department residing in an academic faculty of a foreign studies university in China, was established in the light of English language teaching reform and internal institution restructuring. Within such a social-culturally and political-historically constrained institution, teachers' knowledge construction therefore is thought of as the result of their social participation oriented towards the institutional culture. Wenger's 'social learning theory' or 'community of practice' constitutes the core of the theoretical framework that orients the author's understanding of (1) what characterizes the learning culture of the Danwei workplace community; (2) how teachers orient their social participation (engagement in practice and formation of identity) towards the learning culture of the Danwei community; (3) how teachers' knowledge of language teaching and learning is shaped by their social participation process.
Methodology: Ethnography is a widely used research strategy to understand a group or culture. However, it has been criticized by ethnomethodologists as lacking member's knowledge and methods, reflexivity, and situatedness. Moreover, the most severe criticism of Wenger's social learning theory is its marginalized discussion of power relationship in communities of practice. Based on the above considerations, at the epistemological level, the research takes a broadly constructivist framework, but montaged by participative and critical perspectives. Methodologically, ethnography is used as the major research strategy, which is informed by ethnomethodological and micropolitical elements. Four teachers with various teaching experience (a Canadian professor and three Chinese teachers) and the researcher himself constitute a community of practice, pursing curriculum development of a newly-established BEd programme. During the 12-month ethnographic fieldwork, three dimensions of the learning culture of the Danwei community are scrutinized, i.e. personal (reflective teaching), interpersonal (collaboration and collegiality) and organizational (leadership). A diverse repertoire of data collection methods and techniques ranging from observation, interview, researcher's diary to documents and audio-video records are used to provide triangulated data for understanding how the institutional culture orients the teachers' social participation which in turn shapes their knowledge constructed.
Conclusions: The argument maintains that the knowledge constructed due to active, real and voluntary participation is different from that constructed via passive, contrived and forced socialization practices, and the mechanism of the social participation into the community practices is configured upon the learning culture of the institution. The research is intended to help theorize teacher learning in the Danwei workplace in China and make contribution to the theory of learning in general. Furthermore, the methodology employed is a viable model of Denzin and Lincoln's proposed research paradigm characterized by bricolaging, montaging and quilting. Implicationally, the research is also expected to shed light upon development of policies for teacher professional development in the Chinese context, and illuminate further comparative research on knowledge construction and situated learning in other social systems.
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