We are all teachers, we are all learners. This is the philosophy I have carried with me throughout my teaching career. I carry it with me in the Community of Practices (CoP) which I have been a part of or am a part of. Each have shaped me into the person that I am today.
Like Knox (2009) I see that the most successful CoP that I have belonged to have emerged through interaction rather than design. Through personal interaction we think and discover learning together.
I am privileged to work with a fabulous group of educators. This group make up my CoP. Between us we have knowledge galore in regards to blind, low vision and deaf/blind learners, 0-21 years. There is history in this group, this group was born of interest and a desire to learn more.
On the one hand we are employed as Resource Teacher Vision (RTV) but this is not the only mandate which holds us together as a CoP. The underlying CoP is less formal and roles in it continually change. Overall we support each other in practice and over time have developed relationships which have grown in social circumstances and has seen the sharing of resource.
Wenger-Trayner (2015) write of the importance of:
Domain: the area of shared inquiry and similar issues.
Community: the relationships which have been fostered over time and a sense of belonging.
Practice: The body of knowledge, methods, stories, resources, tools and documents which are brought together and shared.
On reflection of the above, I have developed my place in this CoP over time. I remember when I was new in my job. I was in awe of the knowledge my colleagues had. I was the beginner.
I realise that I have learnt most from my informal CoP. We learn by doing, discussing, disagreeing, and sometimes out of adversity. We value each others input and we are problem solvers. The most successful interactions have happened informally in our CoP.
Our roles are not defined, sometimes I am the observer, leader, listener, problem-solver, problem or facilitator. People are at the centre of this group. We share our learning and resource to improve practice. We use each other as sounding boards to solve issues we may be facing in our practice. We are a CoP which has evolved out of common interest and need... and working in the background at National level (our school is nationwide.) we have a management who are orchestrating opportunities for RTV to connect through Regional days, Conferences and Immersion courses, not to mention the wealth of opportunity in Professional-Development at local level. Together we have collective competence, value and learn from each other (Wenger, 2009)
Being a diverse range of people leads at times to conflict within our CoP. Wenger (2009) says this is normal and can in fact be good. Being too harmonious may mean there is too much "group think" or do people feel silenced? I wonder, do we at times become too comfortable within our practice?
These things can all impact a CoP. "Success depends upon the energy that the community generates" Knox (2009).
Times are changing in education. We are facing recurring issues which aren't so easy to solve. Technology, modern learning environments are now integral parts of learning. We have differing comfort levels within our CoP. Boundaries are being challenged...
Here enters my new CoP: The Mindlab, my group who are sitting here reading my first blog (!) This is the CoP which is taking me to the edge of my learning, adding disruption to comfort.
I am valuing the learning I am gaining from this group. We are bonding through Domain and Practice and slowly become CoP as we interact with each other online, face-to-face and at times under adversity as we grapple with assessment.
But what about my other CoP? Wenger (2009) comments that a new element added into a practice may be accepted or rejected. I wonder will my new learning be accepted or will I be the crazy dancing man waiting for his first follower?
My Question: How do I infiltrate this new knowledge of learning into my practice and workplace? Will it be accepted?
References
Knox, B. (2009) Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow. (Video File). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk&feature=youtu.be
Sivers, D. (2010) First Follower: Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy. https://sivers.org/ff
Wenger, E. (2009). Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. http://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/09-10-27-CoPs-and-systems-v2.01.pdf
Wenger- Trayner, E & T. (2015). Introduction to Communities of Practice: A brief overview of concept and its uses. http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
One of the things to consider about a CoP is that it has to have a formal objectives or goal with shared resources. Although informal conversations while both valuable and often enlightening can we actually consider them a CoP?
ReplyDeleteWe are brought together by our common domain and practice but for me the community and deeper learning has come more from the informal conversations rather than the formal objectives. It is about the discussions you have out of formal meetings, the situations you find yourself in. You are right there are formal objectives and certainly shared resources but it is people that make and build a CoP, so yes I do think that an informal CoP can happen. Thanks for making me think Stephen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the point you make about how our roles constantly change in our collegial communities of practice. I have experienced leading, sharing ideas, supporting, mentoring and all of these seem to happen periodically at different times within my own community of practice. I think a community of teachers forms a culture of relational trust based on the informal, day to day conversations and eventually into a collaboration from which stems the culmination of resources and other more formal meetings and clusters.
ReplyDeleteThanks for extending my thoughts Shannon, you have said this quite succinctly and said what I didn't get round to saying :) it is a culture of real relational trust that develops and from this stems the culmination of resource etc.... again i think it is about people and how they interact.
ReplyDeleteHey Janet. What a great post! You are so right about the community of practice we have as resource teachers vision. The knowledge within this group is vast and comes from a passion, or a desire to make life more accessible for learners who are blind, deafblind or have low vision. Although we have key tasks that are part of our role, we are constantly challenged by circumstances that require us to step outside of that, to best meet the needs of our Äkonga. Like you, I find myself taking on a number of roles. Although I am not a newcomer, depending on what we are doing, at times my knowledge is that of the apprentice. However, at times I am also a 'pioneer' (Wenger, 2000). It is very much in this role when I feel most comfortable using opportunities to challenge and question what we are doing and why.
ReplyDeleteA definition for community of practice that I relate to is from Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002, cited in Agrifoglio, R. (2015) “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (p. 26).
Hey Janet, what an excellent post, so different from my defined view of my own CoP. This is what has drawn me to your post, the fact that your experiences are so different from my own but in context so similar. What is very easy to look over and its for this fact that I enjoyed reading this and it resonated with me but its that 'people are at the center of our CoP'. We are all human, but also all individuals and we bring with us a wide array of experiences and talents. This leads to my next point, that you have raised in your piece above that Wenger (2009) raises that conflict within or CoP can be good, thank you I understand this better now and look at any future conflict within my own CoP as an opportunity to grow and learn! Thanks...
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr H, I feel humbled by your comments and as my mindlab journey comes to an end I am even more convinced that it is about the people. I once heard someone say that the most valuable person on the team is the one that disagrees with you. Diversity of perspective and thought brings alternative ways to the the table and challenges us to think. The key factor though is whether it is constructive or destructive disagreement... i like to think that most is constructive and from this we grow. Thanks for taking the time to comment
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