My Practice Within The Community

My practice within the community

Whakatauki:

Titiro whakamuri, kokiri whakamua

Look backward and reflect so you can move forward

Change Agent or Changed Agent?

When considering Etienne Wenger’s social definition of learning, the morphology of social competence and personal experiences, there is a strong sense of the organic nature of a community of practice. When I considered that tension between social competence and personal experiences it was like a ‘chicken and egg’ argument about becoming ourselves… I was this professional and then through interaction within my community of practice I became this professional. Would I have changed or evolved without that interaction? Was my interaction complicit in the change the community wrought in me or did I create the change within my community? This thinking is a Gordian Knot!

Community Of Practice

I am a member of the Mawhera Kahui Ako community of practice. To date this is a collaboration of thirteen schools, eleven primary and two secondary. We are working together to accelerate the progress of all students within our Kahui Ako, with particular emphasis on literacy for boys. All Kahui Ako teachers have shared in a professional development for literacy, boys education, and cultural responsiveness. These events happened over a range of venues including our newly opened local marae. There are Kahui Ako meetings for lead teachers and principals at least twice a term. I participate in these as one of the across schools teachers. I would like to see within school teachers attending also. As a way of developing this link I have initiated meetings for all across and within school teachers out of school hours. This has been necessary because of the difficulty in our region for accessing relief teachers.

Three Modes Of Belonging

Wenger's three modes of belonging; engagement, imagination, and alignment feel familiar to me. I agree that there needs to be a balance of all three for a community of practice to thrive. I recognise the frustration that people can feel with someone who sits in the imagination (reflection) mode when action needs to be taken, but action without consideration or vision may be ill advised. As part of the Kahui Ako the mode of alignment resonated with me. Working in a reciprocal, collaborative way towards higher goals that sit outside of an individual’s actions but to which the individual’s contribution counts underpins our kahui Ako beliefs.

Practitioners And Participants

Communities of practice within education are not new however the variance in their performance or construction and outcomes is vast. I know that within our own Kahui Ako of thirteen schools this has been the case.  There is room for variance and diversity and as Stoll, L. (1998) points out it is not the cultural differences within a school that matter but the leadership and the mindsets of those working within the organisation. A community of practice can easily become a collection of non-practitioners. I work in number of roles, site specific, colleague specific; a leader and a facilitator within our Kahui Ako, an active member who strongly believes in the goals of our community of practice, and a newcomer too, to the world of connectivity online that would serve us well as a vehicle for supporting each other, prompting each other and sharing best practice.

IN-quiry And Inquiring

Robust inquiry within a community of practice would account for the three dimensions Wenger discusses: Enterprise, Mutuality, and Repertoire. Collegial relationships that demonstrate high trust, allow difficult conversations, provide mutual support and critical review and reflective feedback can engender the desire to continue to learn at all levels of practice. Review and evaluative feedback within a community of practice, being open to scrutiny from outside as well looking closely at evidence based practice is crucial to a successful and progressive community of practice. I sense a few familiar words in here: collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, relationships, mutual respect, learning, problem solving, and underpinning it all... inquiry!

Alive And Living

Developing a community of practice as a living entity requires a commitment from leadership and membership. Having common goals, such as those in our Kahui Ako is a key.  Maintaining interest and momentum requires more than just goals, those far away horizon destinations. Building in short term learning projects or events, developing internal leadership that capitalises on the breadth of skill and knowledge within a community, these are elements that allow a community to thrive.

Sustainability

Sustainability of a community includes the curation of the artefacts developed throughout that communities lifetime. What records are important to maintain? What format or medium should these be in? Who takes responsibility for mapping the developments? Who curates the artefacts? Questions I am pondering myself as I look to the end of our first round of roles within our Kahui Ako and the handing over of the baton!

References:

Stoll, L. (1998). School culture (School Improvement Network’s Bulletin, 9). London: Institute of Education, University of London.

Wenger, E.(2000).Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), p225-246