new directions in preparing professionals: examining issues in engaging students in communities of...

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doi:10.1016/j.ta

�Correspondi

Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 79–92

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New directions in preparing professionals: examining issues inengaging students in communities of practice through a

school–university partnership

Louise M. Sutherland�, Lesley A. Scanlon, Anthony Sperring

Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

A new school–university partnership in NSW has created exciting opportunities for preservice teacher preparation.

The paper examines the results of a pilot study and outlines the main teacher preparation activities undertaken in the

partnership. The paper focuses on how engaging preservice teachers in the community of practice of teachers assisted in

the development of students’ professional knowledge. The paper outlines three examples of preservice programmes,

which incorporated legitimate peripheral participation as a meaningful component of the preservice teachers’ academic

studies. The major issues associated with developing legitimate peripheral participation activities as part of a preservice

teacher education course are discussed.

r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Preservice teacher education; Professional knowledge; Partnerships; Sociocultural framework

Involving practising teachers in the educationand training of preservice teachers has beenrecognised as an important component in teachereducation. Until recently, this involvement haslargely been through the support and guidanceteachers provide to preservice teachers in theirperiods of practice teaching or practicum andinternship. The preservice teachers value theseexperiences in schools and classrooms as they

e front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserv

te.2004.11.007

ng author.

provide them with the opportunities to gainthe necessary skills needed as a professional(Mewborn & Stanulis, 2000). Becoming a profes-sional, however, requires more than just acquiringthe skills needed to operate effectively in theclassroom: ‘‘it involves acquiring a deep under-standing of complex practice, of ethical conductand higher-order learning which occurs in schoolsand classrooms’’ (Shulman, 1998, p. 515). Thisrecognition of the complex nature of teachers’work and the practical knowledge teachers use in

ed.

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L.M. Sutherland et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 79–9280

their professional practice has resulted in a move-ment to more effectively incorporate practis-ing teachers in teacher education programmes(Hodkinson & Hodkinson, 1999; Mewborn &Stanulis, 2000; Ramsey, 2000; Field & Latta,2001). In NSW, the need to recognise and involvepractising teachers in preservice teacher prepara-tion has become more salient as a recent majorreview of teacher education (Ramsey, 2000) foundthat, in general, teacher educators were removedfrom the profession and current professionalpractice.Teaching, like all professions, is a form of highly

complex and skilled practice dependent onteachers’ knowledge and skills. A knowledgebase, which has a theoretical and a professionalcomponent, underpins teachers’ practice. Thetheoretical component is generated by and taughtin academic institutions, and provides teacherswith an understanding of design principles: identi-fying the situational, emotional, cognitive, physi-cal, cultural and organisation factors whichinteract and impact on students’ learning(Salomon, 1996). This theoretical knowledge givesrise to the professional knowledge componentwhen teachers enact theoretical knowledge indesigning and implementing tasks in schools andclassrooms (Shulman, 1998; Guthrie et al., 1998).In the initial phase of preservice professional

education, these two components are separate butcomplementary. As preservice teachers movetowards full membership of the profession, thesecomponents become progressively interrelated asthey use these principles to inform their pedago-gical practice. This difference between the theore-tical and practical knowledge of teachers isarticulated in the differences in competenciesteachers are expected to reach at different stagesin their professional practice. For example, agraduate entering the teaching profession may beexpected to: ‘‘demonstrate knowledge of thetypical stages of students’ physical, social andintellectual development as well as awareness ofexceptions to general patterns’’ (NSW Institute ofTeachers, 2003, p. 3).By contrast a teacher who has acquired full

membership of the profession is expected to applythis knowledge of students’ development in their

day-to-day practice. Further, educational leadersare expected to exhibit and share theoretical andpractical knowledge of typical stages of students’development, or monitor and evaluate teachingand learning from their use of their knowledgeof students’ development (NSW Institute ofTeachers, 2003). Thus, at this stage in their careerteachers are expected to be able to use theirtheoretical knowledge to enhance the developmentof other teachers’ professional knowledge.Since this professional knowledge is closely

linked to the daily work of teachers, one of thechallenges of preservice teacher preparation is toprovide opportunities for preservice teachers toengage with and acquire this professional knowl-edge. In order to assist preservice teachers developtheir professional knowledge they need opportu-nities to be involved in professional practice, andto reflect on and integrate the knowledge they havegained from their experiences with the theoreticalknowledge provided by the institution.Traditionally, the practicum has provided pre-

service teachers with an opportunity to developthis professional knowledge but as Field and Latta(2001) found practicum experiences often result inpreservice teachers developing the technical skillsof classroom management and effective instruc-tion, rather than the practical wisdom associatedwith professional practice. Although effectivementoring of preservice teachers during theirpracticum can overcome these difficulties, the timeinvolved and the skill level of many practisingteachers means this is unlikely to occur (Gale &Jackson, 1997).

1. Communities of practice

An alternative method of assisting preserviceteachers to develop professional knowledge ispartnerships formed between schools and univer-sities where preservice teachers have opportunitiesto be involved with the day-to-day activities ofprofessional practice. One way of conceptualisinghow these activities assist preservice teachersdevelop their professional knowledge draws onthe work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger(1999). In their work, learning is viewed as a

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L.M. Sutherland et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 79–92 81

socially situated activity, which has as one of itsdefining characteristics legitimate peripheral parti-

cipation (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This is a kind ofapprenticeship in which the newcomers partiallyparticipate in legitimate activities of a communityof practice. It is through these activities that theapprentice assembles a general idea of whatconstitutes the practice of the community and inthis way prepares for full membership of thecommunity (Lave & Wenger, 1991).While, the teacher education literature recog-

nises the need to enhance practising teachers’involvement in the preparation of preserviceteachers, there are few examples of non-practi-cum-based initiatives. This paper addresses thisneed by describing three different initiatives wherepreservice teachers, in their first year of study, areengaged in legitimate peripheral participationactivities. Through a discussion of the relationshipbetween these activities and the relevant theore-tical knowledge, the impact on these activities onthe development of the preservice teachers’ profes-sional knowledge is considered. The participants’reactions are used to hypothesise the impacts ofthese initiatives on the development of theirprofessional knowledge and their perceptions oftheir development as teachers. Finally, the salientissues in developing legitimate peripheral partici-pation activities are examined.The formation of a school–university partner-

ship provided the stimulus and opportunity for thedevelopment and implementation of these legit-imate peripheral participation activities. The paperbegins by discussing this opportunity. Although,the initiative also had an impact on the practisingteachers involved in these activities, the discussionof this impact is beyond the scope of this paper.

2. The school–university partnership

In 2001, one mechanism to foster practisingteachers’ involvement in teacher education was theformation of a partnership between the NSWDepartment of Education and Training (DET)and the Faculty of Education at the Universityof Sydney. One outcome of this partnership wasthe co-funding of two lectureships in Education at

the University. It was expected that the appointeeswould work at both the University of Sydney anda senior high school, in a newly formed EducationCentre in the St George District. It was envisagedthat one of the outcomes of this school–universitypartnership would be the development of oppor-tunities to enhance the quality of teacher educa-tion offered at the University by providing thepreservice teachers with greater involvement withpractising teachers.In the pilot stage of the partnership, the three

initiatives discussed in this paper were developed:(i) Tutorials in First Year Education, (ii) Work-shops in Science Foundations and (iii) SecondaryChemistry Curriculum Studies in the Master ofTeaching (MTeach) programme. Two of theinitiatives, the Tutorials for First Year Educationand the Workshops in Science Foundations, wereoffered as alternative components in two differentcompulsory courses in undergraduate degreeprogrammes. The third, Secondary ChemistryCurriculum Studies, was one of the courses ofstudy in a post-graduate preservice teacher pre-paration programme, the MTeach.In developing these initiatives to enhance pre-

service teacher preparation, there were three mainconsiderations. The first of these was the time. TheEducation Centre in the St George District andthe university are not geographically close, theCentre being some 45min from the university,which meant there were restrictions on the time-tabling of the activities in the three initiatives. Asthe activities at the Centre were only a smallcomponent of the preservice teachers’ study at theuniversity, these activities needed to be organisedso that the preservice teachers had sufficient timeto travel between the University and the Centre.Second, these initiatives were dependent on the

goodwill of the teachers in the school community.While these initiatives arose from a partnershipbetween the university and the school district,there was no formal agreement that enabledteachers to be remunerated for their participationin any of the initiatives. The teachers whoparticipated in these programmes did so becausethey were committed to teaching and to teachereducation. Thus, when developing the initiativesthe lecturers involved were conscious of the need

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to maximise the preservice teachers’ involvementin the community of teachers while at the sametime minimising the possible disruption thisparticipation might cause the teachers and schools.Opportunities for giving back to the schoolcommunity some kind of ancillary benefit fromthe partnership activities were also a considerationfor the university academics designing the pro-grammes.The final consideration was the relationship

between these initiatives and the preservice tea-chers’ other studies in the respective courses. Theundergraduate courses, First Year Education andScience Foundations are two compulsory coursesin the first year of the Bachelor of Educationdegree programmes at the University of Sydney.Preservice teachers in these programmes wereoffered the opportunity to participate in theseinitiatives. Only a small number of preserviceteachers enrolled in these two courses volunteeredto participate in either the First Year Educationtutorials or the Workshops in Science Founda-tions. Since the assessment for these two coursescovered mandatory activities in the respectivetutorial and workshop programmes, it was essen-tial that the legitimate peripheral participationactivities supported the preservice teachers’ learn-ing of the other aspects of the course.

2.1. Initiative 1: First Year Education tutorials

First Year Education is a compulsory corecourse for all preservice teachers enrolled in anyof the Bachelor of Education degree programmesoffered at the University. The course positionsteachers’ work within a social, historical andcultural context, that is, within the community ofpractice of teachers. Preservice teachers are intro-duced to the place of education within Australiansociety and the multiple factors that have impactedon the development and implementation of theAustralian education system. As well, preserviceteachers consider different perspectives on thecurriculum, child development and teaching. FirstYear Education is thus an ideal context in whichto enable preservice teachers to begin to partici-pate in the community of practice that, when their

university studies have been completed, they willjoin.The activities discussed below were subject to

ongoing preservice teacher evaluation. The school-based tutorials were evaluated through two focussessions one mid-way through the semester and theother after the final seminar and through writtenevaluations following each seminar. The shadow-ing initiative was evaluated from detailed activitynotes written by the preservice teachers during theshadowing experience. All student commentsreferred in the following discussions come fromthese evaluations.

2.1.1. Issues involved in developing the legitimate

peripheral participation activities

The school-based activities, through whichpreservice teachers engaged in legitimate periph-eral participation within the community of tea-chers, were of two kinds: interaction in tutorialswith teachers from local primary and secondaryschools and the opportunity for preservice tea-chers to shadow a teacher in a local school for oneday each semester.In order to assist the preservice teachers link

educational theory with the reality of day-to-dayteaching, the teachers were asked to incorporatethe university tutorial readings into their presenta-tions. Thus, the tutorials combined semi-formalpresentations by teachers and informal interactionbetween teachers and preservice teachers. Thesetutorials became a kind of peripheral participationbecause through the teachers’ stories and lifehistories, shared in the rituals, routines andpractices the preservice teachers began to partici-pate in the community of teachers. Thus, in thisform of peripheral participation, the preserviceteachers rather than actively engaging in thecommunity shared the community’s activitiesthrough the experiences of practising teachers.

2.1.2. Legitimate peripheral participation activities

In their comments on teachers’ participation intutorials, preservice teachers spoke about thesetutorials being ‘interesting’, ‘enjoyable’, ‘fun’,‘refreshing’ and ‘compelling’. They referred tothe ‘wonderful stories’ that teachers recounted andwhich they said enabled them to appreciate the

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‘‘things that are special about teaching and make itrewarding’’. The following comments are repre-sentative of preservice teachers’ responses to thisform of legitimate peripheral participation:

They were teachers and taught at the presenttime. This validated what they were saying andit allowed me to see how the theories were putinto practice. It made the theories seem morereal and relevant.

These tutorials gave a human element. Theyallowed us to put issues into context.

The teachers were able to relate to the sort offears we may have regarding the profession ofteaching.

A real and useful perspective.

A realistic view of what teachers go through.

Underpinning all of these comments is thevalidation given to teachers’ stories by their fullmembership of the community of teachers.Through interaction with this real world contex-tualisation preservice teachers also found valida-tion for the educational theory of university studyand through this legitimate peripheral participa-tion in teachers’ worlds, preservice teachers hadthe opportunity, as one preservice teacher de-scribed it, of ‘‘being on the other side’’. This wasan experience further enhanced through thesecond component of the initiative the in-schoolexperience of shadowing a teacher for a day.Shadowing a teacher provided preservice tea-

chers with the opportunity to participate inlegitimate teaching activities within the communityof practice of teachers. The extent of thisparticipation varied between primary and second-ary schools. In primary schools, preservice tea-chers were able to participate in a range ofactivities, including assisting in classroom activ-ities, playground duty and sport. In the secondaryschool, while some preservice teachers were able toshadow a teacher for a day, others were restricted,because of the time constraints in a senior highschool, to shadowing in the sense of observingclasses and engaging in conversations with tea-chers and preservice teachers. Shadowing in thesenior school did not include assisting teachers in

classroom activities nor in non-teaching duties.Nonetheless, all of the preservice teachers foundshadowing a valuable activity.Preservice teachers saw shadowing as an oppor-

tunity for what one preservice teacher called‘hands-on experience’. All of the preservice tea-chers said that participating in real schoolactivities reinforced their decision to establisha career in teaching. The comments belowillustrate this:

I now know it is what I want to do. I loved it.

I still really want to teach and this experiencereinforced that. This experience just made merealise how valuable teachers are and how muchimpact they can have on a child’s life.

It was very valuable, it inspired me. Teaching ismy passion. When I thought I would be left atuni in lectures with no practical, I was quitedismayed.

Preservice teachers again spoke of participationas a means of clarifying and affirming theirdecision to become full members of the communityof practice of teachers. Participation also gavepreservice teachers an appreciation of the signifi-cant role teachers play in the lives of students.Again, this activity also established a link betweenuniversity study and practice in schools. Inparticular, this link was made in the areas ofchild development and child protection. Theresearcher’s past experiences indicate that forpreservice teachers in their first year of theirprofessional education, the concepts of childdevelopment and child protection often remainlargely theoretical.Preservice teacher participation in the school-

based tutorial programme and the resultantlegitimate peripheral participation in the commu-nity of practice of teachers made ‘the whole notionof being a teacher less foreign’ for preserviceteachers. This was a first step in their acceptance asfull members of the community of teachers and itreinforced for them their choice of teaching as acareer.

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2.1.3. Relationship between legitimate peripheral

participation and the development of professional

knowledge

The preservice teachers’ reactions suggest thatthe in-school tutorials gave them the opportunityearly in their preservice training to begin toacquire some of the professional knowledgeassociated with the community of teaching. Along-side the acquisition of the theoretical componentof teachers’ knowledge through university activ-ities students also acquired the professionalcomponent of teachers’ knowledge through theirschool-based activities. Teachers’ stories provide acontext, allowing preservice teachers operationa-lise concepts of teaching as a broader communityactivity by recognising differences in values andattitudes among the community.This acquisition of professional knowledge

resulted from the tutorial being situated withinthe physical context of the teaching communitywhere students were witnesses to the day-to-dayactivities of teachers in school. Another way thatstudents acquired professional knowledge wasthrough participation in the activities of teachingthrough shadowing a teacher. Through thisactivity the preservice teachers began to under-stand the multiple factors teachers need toconsider in their classroom practice. Thus, throughdirect access to the community of practice ofteachers, the preservice teachers were providedwith opportunities to associate the theoreticalknowledge of their university courses with thecontext of teaching and perceive the relationshipsbetween these theoretical concepts and the profes-sional knowledge of teachers.

2.2. Initiative 2: Science Foundations workshops

Science Foundations is a two-semester compul-sory general science course for preservice teachersenrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Primary)degree programme. The aims of the course are toprovide preservice teachers with sufficient knowl-edge of the major concepts in science to teachScience and Technology in primary schools and tohelp preservice teachers address some of theirscientific misconceptions. The course is organisedinto lectures, excursions and workshops. While the

lectures and excursions are designed to deliver therelevant content knowledge (and are taughtthrough the university’s Faculty of Science), theworkshops component, taught through theFaculty of Education, focused on overcomingpreservice teachers’ misconceptions. These work-shops were organised around a series of exercisesthat highlighted common science misconceptions.It was expected that the classroom discussion thatfollowed the preservice teachers’ completion ofthe exercises would highlight mismatches betweenthe preservice teachers’ existing knowledge and thescientific explanations. The course developershoped that by highlighting these misconceptionsthe preservice teachers would be challenged toreview their current understanding of these basicscientific principles.

2.2.1. Issues involved in developing the legitimate


Research into children’s understandings ofconcepts in science has also shown that students’initial conceptions are extremely persistent and it isdifficult in formal instruction to change students’naı̈ve views (Driver, 1981; Driver & Oldham, 1986;Osborne et al., 1989). Dole’s and Sinata (1998)model of the factors associated with changingstudents’ misconceptions showed that students’motivation was a crucial factor in determiningwhether they undergo any conceptual change.Therefore, it was important in developing thelegitimate peripheral participation activities toensure that these activities provided mechanismsto enhance preservice teachers’ motivation as wellas assisting the preservice teachers to thoughtfullycompare their own understandings with thescientific explanation. Since work by Akerson,Flick, and Lederman (2000) found that whenprimary teachers had opportunities to listen totheir students’ understandings of science concepts,this had a positive impact on their practice; it wasdecided to use a similar approach in developingworkshop activities for the preservice teachers.Directly working with young children was alsolikely to be an attractive proposition for theBachelor of Education (Primary) preservice tea-chers as it was one of the few opportunities in thefirst year of their degree where they would be

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directly involved with young children in a schoolsetting.


The preservice teachers were involved in threetypes of legitimate peripheral participation activ-ities; interviews with primary school pupils, lead-ing a small group of primary school pupils in astructured investigation in the classroom, andacting as a facilitator for an outdoor, hands-onexcursion. In all these activities, the preserviceteachers were given the procedures to follow andsupplied with the relevant materials. In order tofacilitate the preservice teachers’ learning fromtheir involvement in the range of activities. Theywere expected to record and reflect on the insightsthey had gained about children’s learning and theirown understanding of science concepts, and on thenature and role of science as part of the Scienceand Technology key learning area in the primarysyllabus, and to share these insights with theirpeers. At the end of the semester, small focusgroup interviews and individual written evalua-tions were collected from all the preserviceteachers engaged in this initiative. Thesecomments formed the basis of the evaluation ofthis initiative.The interviews were conducted with the primary

pupils at one of the primary schools adjacent tothe Education Centre. In each interview, thepreservice teacher talked to at least three differentprimary school pupils from a range of grades(Years 1–6). In these interviews, the preserviceteachers explored these younger children’s under-standing of common scientific concepts, usingquestions that had been developed from previousresearch. For example, in the topic area of LivingThings, the preservice teachers asked primaryschool pupils if the items shown in a set of pictureswere ‘alive’ or ‘not alive’.The ongoing interaction with primary school

pupils appeared to facilitate these preserviceteachers’ development of a greater appreciationof changes in children’s understanding of scienceconcepts. The following quotations exemplify howthe activities had an impact on the preserviceteachers’ understanding of children’s ideas inscience:

When you do a normal workshop, you assumekids think this and kids think that, but if youactually talk to them it is different.

You get to see the stages, like stage 1 and stage2, how others are thinkingy

I feel I understand how kids thinky They havesuch strange thoughts, and you go where doesthan come from. It so weird!

Closely associated with the preservice teachers’appreciation of the changes in children’s under-standing and ideas in science was also theirappreciation of the diversity in children’s abilitieswithin one class. Comments such as:

I always thought that if they were at the samelevel, like if they are in Year 2 all of them wouldhave the same ideas, but they don’t. There aresome who have these really great ideas andknow exactly what they are talking about whileothers have no idea at all.

I had two kids in Year 2, I think it wasy Theystill sort of knew the same sort of stuff, butthe girl had a better way of putting it. Atthe same time I think there was a boy in Year 3,he was so smart and I thought wow. He knew[it] and even it did not know, the way hereasoned around it and the way he tried toexplain it.

The preservice teachers’ appreciation of thediversity of experience and ability in a primaryschool class is an important component in theirdevelopment of professional knowledge as itprovides the basis for understanding the challengesof programming for individual students within aprimary school class.One class from the local primary school joined

the preservice teachers in a hands-on excursionconducted at the local wetlands. In this excursion,the preservice teachers became adult facilitatorsassisting the primary school pupils to participatein the ‘Bug-watch’ programme, an environmentalawareness and monitoring programme developedby the local water authority. In the ‘Bug-watch’programme, the primary school pupils carry outsome simple water quality testing, as well ascollecting and classifying some macro-inverte-

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brates. This experience appeared to assist thepreservice teachers to review their choice tobecome a teacher as well as appreciate the widerange of skills they will need in their futurecareers. As one of the preservice teachers com-mented:

This is the first time it seems as though we get achance to work with kids if you are going to bea teacher. It was a reality check. We only hadto take care of five. Sometimes there was onewho was a bit of a rebel or one in tears, so it wasa bit hard.

The other activities in this initiative involvedthe preservice teachers leading the primary schoolpupils in a mini-investigation conducted eitherin the science laboratories at the EducationCentre, or in the grounds of the local primaryschool. Again these activities involved the pre-service teachers working with a class of pupilsfrom Years 4 to 6. Working as individualsor in pairs, the preservice teachers worked witha small group of primary school pupils as theycompleted an activity. The preservice teacherswere expected to guide and supervise theprimary school children’s efforts and to usethese opportunities to hear these children’s ex-planations of the things observed. Again thesepreservice teachers were asked to record insightsthey had gained about the primary schoolpupils’ explanations of common phenomena,for example melting and evaporating. Theseactivities were more challenging for the preserviceteachers for two reasons. Firstly, while theywere designed so that the preservice teacherscould hear students’ explanations of concepts,both the preservice teachers and the studentsexpected to offer the correct explanation. Thepreservice teachers’ incomplete understandingof the concepts as well as their lack of theappropriate pedagogical skills reduced the effec-tiveness of this task:

With the chemistry section in particular, Ifound it hard to translate what I knew to whatkids knew. Like in high school, that’s all I learntin chemistry and then doing the same thing thisyear, it seemed so difficult.

and

I think one of the hardest things was, if weasked a question as we were doing an experi-ment, if they were wrong. I didn’t knowwhether I was supposed to be teaching thembut they were wrong and teaching them thecorrect answer or if I was just supposed to notedown what they got wrong and not teach themanything. Even if I felt I was going to teachthem something, I wouldn’t know exactly howto tell them that I was going to teach themsomething, I wouldn’t know exactly how to tellthem that.

While the preservice teachers were faced withsimilar challenges in the ‘Bug-watch’ activity, thiswas a one-off event, and they had been directed torelevant sources of information and provided withrelevant training before the activity. The preserviceteachers’ reactions to the two different ‘teaching’opportunities (‘Bug-watch’ and the mini-investiga-tions) indicate the importance of providing suffi-cient support in both knowledge as well as skills ifthey are to remain effective legitimate peripheralparticipation activities.Overall, the preservice teachers’ comments

suggest that these opportunities reaffirmed theirchoice to be teachers:

It reminds me why primary school teaching. Itis seeing how excited kids are learning newconcepts.

It has given us an edge, when we go on pracnext year we already know what schools arelike.

As well the activities assisted them to develop amore complex view of teaching. Supporting thishypothesis is the comment from one of thepreservice teachers when she was reflecting onher experiences in the programme and how sheintended to approach her teaching of science in theprimary school:

If I ever taught I would not do it that way,[doing demonstrations then handing out sheets]its more about generating ideas in kids andtrying to get them to a basic understanding.

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knowledge

Compared with the first initiative, the preserviceteachers in this initiative had less day-to-daycontact with teachers, however, the ongoingcontact with children assisted them to understandthe complexity of teachers’ work in the classroomand how differences in children’s physical, emo-tional and cognitive abilities impact on teachers’work. Primary schools became ‘more familiarplaces’. This is the first step in the preserviceteachers being accepted as full members of thecommunity of teachers. The structure of theactivities helped preservice teachers appreciatethe range of physical and cognitive abilities ofpupils in a typical primary school class. Differ-ences in children’s development are discussed inFirst Year Education, these legitimate peripheralparticipation activities, however, provided thepreservice teachers with the experience to reinforcethis theoretical knowledge. The activities alsoassisted the preservice teachers to clarify the skillsand knowledge they are expected to developduring the following 3 years of their under-graduate studies.

2.3. Initiative 3: senior chemistry as part of the

science curriculum studies in the MTeach

The MTeach programme is a 2-year post-graduate teacher-training programme, developedto train primary and secondary teachers. TheScience Curriculum coursework in first year in theMTeach programme is developed around thefollowing thematic sequence, with two broadphases separated by the block practice teachingsession in mid-year: (i) preparing for the firstpracticum: peer teaching (teaching and learning asingle scientific idea), children’s understandingsand learning of science, the science curriculumand syllabuses, and planning science lessons and(ii) post-practicum review: the nature of science inschools—students, teachers and the community,and planning and programming science topics(units of work).This initiative was designed to complement the

second, post-practicum phase of their science

curriculum studies. In this phase, the preserviceteachers engage with issues in planning andprogramming science topics. For the preserviceteachers in the Chemistry Elective class, groups offour preservice teachers were each assigned adifferent topic (‘module’) from the NSW Stage 6Chemistry syllabus. The preservice teachers wereexpected to develop this unit of work and someassociated teaching materials in consultation withthe chemistry teachers at senior high school in theEducation Centre.

2.3.1. Issues involved in developing of the legitimate


In a series of meetings between the universitylecturer and the three chemistry teachers from theschool, the structure of the legitimate peripheralparticipation activities was developed. The pre-service teachers would visit the school on twooccasions, the first of which was to enable them tosee the school and to discuss with the teacher(s) theUnit Planning task they had been set. The secondwas to enable the preservice teachers to observe aChemistry class and to have a follow-up discussionwith the teacher about the observed lesson in thecontexts of syllabus and school. The teachers wereasked to identify areas of the Chemistry syllabus,which they felt more problematic in implementa-tion, interpretation or development so that thepreservice teachers could be directed to work onspecific modules of interest to the teachers. Inparticular, they were asked to identify areas wherethey had few or insufficient teaching resources, sothat the preservice teachers could be directed tofocus the resource development task in the assign-ment on something of interest to the teacher. Thiswas thought to be particularly apposite becausethe new NSW Stage 6 Science syllabuses werebeing taught for the first time in 2001–2, and hadattracted considerable comment from the scienceteaching profession because they represented asignificant departure from previous syllabuses.Thus, the preservice teachers’ work in planning aUnit of work was set in an authentic contextbecause the teachers themselves were makingprogramming and implementation decisions abouta new and unfamiliar syllabus. It was envisagedthat the preservice teachers would work in an

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apprentice-like role, developing useful materialsunder the guidance of the teacher–mentor with aview to the possible use of these materials during asubsequent phase of the partnership either thepractice teaching or the internship school place-ment in second year, when some of the preserviceteachers would be placed at this school.The legitimate peripheral participation activities

therefore were aimed not only at engaging studentsin discourse with practising teachers about broadbrush issues in the teaching of science (specificallychemistry) to children, but also in engagementwith practical issues of syllabus interpretation andclassroom practices at the local school level. Justas teachers’ professional knowledge is developedand enacted in the context of their daily experi-ences of particular classes of students, in aparticular school (in contrast to the ‘typical’,‘ideal’ or otherwise constructed archetypes thatpreservice teachers meet in their coursework or inmuch of the literature), so also the studentteachers’ interaction with practising teachersand exposure to their routines, practices andbeliefs are contextualised within real world frame-works.


In this initiative, the preservice teachers wereexpected to choose as their assignment topic onewhich was of interest to the teachers, focus theirresource development on the issues identified bythe teachers, and set the unit plan in the context ofa school with the demographic profile of thestudents in the senior high school which formedpart of the Education Centre. They were to visitthe school on one occasion to discuss the set taskswith the teacher, in the context of the school, itsstudents and that teacher’s needs. Subsequently,they were to visit the school a week after the firstvisit, and after meeting in their assignment topicgroups to discuss the initial implications for theirunit planning exercise. During this second visitthey were asked to observe a Chemistry class beingtaught by the teacher and have a follow-updiscussion with the teacher concerning the rela-tionship between the syllabus, teacher planning,students’ aptitudes and attitudes, and the lesson asactually taught.

Subsequent to the activity at school and theirlater work on the preparation of a unit plan andthe associated teaching materials, all the partici-pating students were interviewed, in small groups,to ascertain their feelings and thoughts on theinitiative. The preservice teachers commentedfavourably on the opportunities this initiativeprovided to see real school environments and toengage with practising teachers, though the timingof this programme as an after-practicum activitywas thought to be inappropriate, with manypreservice teachers suggesting that it should comebefore their first practice teaching placement.Typical comments highlighted the value of theexercise in placing theoretical constructs met intheir academic studies into the educational con-texts enunciated by the teachers. These included:

I think that one of the things we prefer is tomeet in round table discussions was gettingthrough a lot of the educational part of thingsand getting rid of all the rubbishyall thetheoriesy Hearing what the teacher had to sayabout it was good.

At a practical level, students appreciated thevoice of experience offered by the practisingteachers:

I was talking with [a teacher]yand I was nottoo certain what certain [syllabus] dot pointsrequired. He knew exactly what it was aboutand told me what was required for [each] so thatwas good.

The opportunity to engage with teachers in thereal world of their professional lives, and to havethe voices of the practitioner form part of theirexperiences in their own preparation for teaching,was highly valued by the preservice teachers:

[In answer to a question ‘How much do youthink teachers should have a say in yourtraining as a teacher?’]: ‘I’d like more of it ..When you’re here [at university] you don’treally appreciate what the practices [are] youwould like. It’s simple questions [that] youcould ask any teacher, that were coming upover and over [in planning for teaching]. Youwould have that contact with teachers and have

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[those questions] answered. I’ve learned moreoff the teachers in prac than I have in anythingelsey I think that would be good to have moreinteraction with them.

[The] positives [in the exercise] would have beensitting down with the teachers. Definitely theywere great. They were enthusiastic and orga-nised and set up for us to go there and they werereally good. It was good getting an under-standing that they just basically do thatyiden-tifying their challenging areas and how theydealt with [these].



knowledge

Programming and planning units of work areone of the essential skills for beginning teachers(NSW Institute of Teachers, 2003). The challengesof developing a set of resources, which aremeaningful and can be effectively used for a highlyprescriptive syllabus provided the preservice tea-chers with insights into how cultural and organisa-tional factors impact on teachers’ work. At theirstage of development the preservice teachers maynot have the pedagogical expertise to implement arange of teaching strategies in a classroom, but thelegitimate peripheral participation provided themwith the opportunity to develop a range ofactivities.

2.3.4. Challenges associated with developing the

three initiative

There were three major challenges associatedwith implementing the peripheral participationinitiatives, namely, Organisation, MaintainingLinks with Existing Programmes and DesigningAuthentic Tasks.There were three issues associated with the first

challenge, Organisation. The first, referred toearlier in the paper, was chiefly associated withdelivering programme components in two geogra-phically distant institutions and eliciting thecooperation of busy practising teachers. We haveacknowledged that only a small number ofstudents took advantage of the initiatives andone of the reasons for this was the difficulty

experienced by students in organising timetablesand transportation between the two institutions. Itmust be said, however, that there were studentswho were prepared to substantially restructuretheir programmes in order to be part of theinitiative.The second organisational issue was that the

initiatives relied heavily on the goodwill ofteachers, as there was no provision for providingthem with remuneration or teaching relief. Withinthe high school teachers who took part in thetutorials and shadowing activities frequently madeorganisation adjustments to their day in order toaccommodate the peripheral participation activ-ities. In the primary school shadowing activities,the school Principal and teachers made significantadjustment to the school day in order to involvethe preservice teachers in the whole range ofauthentic school activities. Without this level ofcooperation from teachers the initiatives wouldnot have been possible.Schools and teachers find it very difficult to

accommodate extra preservice teachers and somaking sure schools and teachers were not overloaded with students was the third organisationissue. This was especially the case in the legitimateperipheral activities where preservice teachers wereworking accompanied in the school setting. Specialefforts needed to be made to resolve timetablingissues for both the preservice teachers and theteachers and schools.As only a small number of the total cohort

enrolled in the university courses participated inthe first two initiatives, the second major challengewas integrating the legitimate peripheral participa-tion initiatives into the existing university course.This entailed maintaining the integrity of theuniversity programmes but at the same timeextending the programmes to include authenticschool-based activities. Overall this required a dealof creativity and flexibility developing authenticactivities which would assist the preservice tea-chers to enhance the transformation of thetheoretical components of the courses into theirprofessional knowledge.Closely associated with this issue was the

challenge of designing authentic learning activities.In the first two initiatives, the preservice teachers

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were in the first year of their Teacher Educationdegree, and so had limited knowledge or experi-ence in the discourse of education. Devisingexperiences, which were genuinely authentic topractice but were also at a sufficient level ofdifficulty but would not overburden the preserviceteachers was the third major challenge. In the thirdinitiative, the preservice teachers had greaterexperience in the professional community ofteachers and so were ready to engage at a deeperlevel. Thus in this initiative the teacher educatorswere faced with the challenge of devising anactivity which would assist the preservice teachersto gain new insights into how teachers use theirprofessional knowledge in creating and imple-menting learning activities from the prescribesyllabus.

3. Discussion

The community of practice of each of theprofessions is a socio-historical context (Wenger,1999) with its own routines, rituals, conventionsand stories. One of the challenges of educatingpreservice practitioners is to provide them withopportunities for authentic experiences in thecommunities they are training to join. Throughthe school–university partnership preservice tea-chers were able to participate in the community ofpractice of teachers and share with them some ofthe elements that make up the community. Thethree different methods of assisting preserviceteachers to engage with the community of teachersdescribed in this paper provide examples ofinnovative methods of engaging practising tea-chers in supporting the preparation of preserviceteachers. For the initiatives to be successfulrequires the support and encouragement of theparticipating schools’ Principals and the willingparticipation of the classroom teachers who areasked to accept an extra load by assisting thepreservice teachers.While, the preservice teachers involved in these

initiatives appreciated the opportunities to engagewith teachers’ communities of practice, the struc-ture of these initiatives provided opportunities forthe preservice teachers to relate the theoretical

knowledge to the practical realities of schools andclassrooms. In these experiences, the preserviceteachers were not focused on the technical skills ofclassroom management or providing the instruc-tion, as the professionals carried out these tasks.Instead, like other forms of legitimate peripheralparticipation, the preservice teachers were engagedin meaningful professional-related tasks.Engaging in meaningful tasks appeared to

facilitate the development of the preservice tea-chers’ professional knowledge. They were able torelate the theory taught at the university to thepractical needs of teachers in schools. In this way,the theory became more meaningful for them, asthe legitimate peripheral participation activitiesprovided them with the experience in authenticsettings for learning about the teaching profession.Extended contact with schools and teachers also

helped to confirm these preservice teachers’choices to become teachers. Usually preserviceteachers have little ongoing contact with schoolsor teachers in their first year of study; in theseinitiatives the preservice teachers had multipleopportunities to observe the complex nature ofteachers’ work and to develop an appreciation ofthe rewards associated with a career in teaching.

3.1. Reflection on engagement: lessons for the

future

The three initiatives discussed in this paperassisted the first year preservice teachers gaininsights into the characteristics, which define theprofession and thus assisted in the development oftheir professional knowledge. Their experiences inthese initiatives contrasted favourably with theimpact of a practicum where the preserviceteachers are more likely to develop technicalknowledge (Field & Latta, 2001) rather thaninsights into profession practice. The success ofthese three initiatives depended on the develop-ment of activities embedded in the social andcultural contexts of the community of practice ofteachers. These legitimate peripheral participationactivities provided a bridge between the students’academic studies and their future work as profes-sionals. Reflection on the development of the

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activities in the three initiatives suggests there arefour basic elements critical for successful.The first is implied in the name ‘legitimate

peripheral participation’. ‘Legitimate’ implies theactivities must be recognised and valued by theprofession. These activities must provide thepreservice teachers with authentic experiences,that is, experiences related to routine professionalpractice. These experiences, however, need toallow the preservice teachers opportunities toperipherally participate in the community. Unlikea practicum, where the preservice professional isexpected to take on a major component of theroles and responsibilities of the profession, inperipheral participation activities students havevery limited responsibilities. The careful construc-tion of legitimate peripheral participation activitiesmeans that the preservice teachers can gaininsights into the profession that they are seekingto join prior, to their full membership with itsassociated responsibilities.An effective professional needs a complex and

detailed body of knowledge and thus the secondelement is that the legitimate peripheral participa-tion activities must form only a small part of thepreservice teachers’ education. These activitiesmust be developed to support the acquisition ofthe theoretical knowledge underpinning theirdiscipline and provide them with opportunities totransform this theoretical knowledge into profes-

sional knowledge associated with effective practice.The primary role of training new members of a

profession rests with academic institutions. Thisimplies the third element and that is, that whileauthentic experiences are necessary for effectiveeducation of new teachers, implementing theseexperiences cannot place too great a demand onmembers of the professional community of prac-tising teachers. While supporting newer membersis one of the characteristics, which define profes-sional practice, the major role of any professionalmust be to do the work of that profession. Thus, ifpreservice teacher education programmes are tomaintain and develop links with schools andteachers, then any joint educational activitiesneed to have a minimal impact on theteachers’ principle responsibilities, teaching theirstudents.

Finally, in order to have credibility with theprofession, and develop authentic experiences fortheir students, the academic staff needs to main-tain ongoing experiences with schools, classroomsand practising teachers. This suggests teachereducation faculties need to develop mechanismsfor academic staff to move easily between aca-demic and professional experiences.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge thecontribution and cooperation of school principalsand teachers in implementing the three initiatives.Secondly, they would like to thank the reviewersfor their insightful comments on the draft of thismanuscript.

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