Abstract

WILMOT, Di  and  GOLDSCHAGG, Paul. Exploring the inner workings of the Southern African Geography Teachers' Association Google Group. JoGEA [online]. 2023, vol.6, pp.79-103. ISSN 2788-9114.  http://dx.doi.org/10.46622/jogea.v6i1.4372.

This article presents the findings of the second phase of an ongoing study aimed at understanding how the Southern African Geography Teachers' Association (SAGTA) online Google Group, an emergent Professional Learning Community (PLC), may support and enhance school geography education and teacher professional development. It looks closely at the inner workings of the Google Group and considers the supportive role it played during and after the COVID-19 pandemic (that is, March 2020 to December 2021 and January to November 2022). Data generated by the posts made during and after the pandemic, were analysed and categorised. A purposive sample from each category was selected for further in-depth analysis. The findings are discussed in relation to national imperatives, (includingfor example, teacher professional development, social justice, inequality and learner underperformance) and global education discoursesfor transformative education. The findings reveal a predominance of curriculum content information sharing posts focused on 'the what' of teaching, with less attention to 'the how' to teach, and an emphasis on 'what is' rather than 'what might be' (future oriented, transformative learning) called for by international education discourses. The Google Group offers support to secondary school teachers in a narrow slice of South African schools. The findings reveal gaps and omissions which we contend must be addressed so that the Google Group can mature as a PLC which supports an extended view of teacher professionalism. We offer some suggestions on how this may be achieved in practice which may be useful to the users of the Google Group, the SAGTA Google Group and the broader geography education community.

Keywords : curriculum content knowledge; pedagogical content knowledge; teacher professionalism; professional learning community; transformative learning.

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