In trying to identify the Communities of Practice (Cop) that I belong to I referred to Wegner-Traynor (2015) who state that "communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." I realised that I belong to several varied Cop that all have similar or common domains, however, there are two Communities of Practice that stand out for me.
My initial thoughts were of my colleagues at school. I am, as
Wenger (2000, p.227) defines, a “newcomer” or someone who wants to align my
experience with their competence. This
is my immediate Cop and it is an Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) we teach
in. It is a new school and a new learning environment for me. I have taught in a single cell classroom for
the past ten years and moving into an ILE has required a shift in my thinking
and challenged my practice. In our ILE we
need to work very collaboratively in our shared space and ensure that we all
have the same vision, goals and high expectations for our students. I feel privileged to be a part of this new
community because of the supportive culture that had already been established
prior to me arriving. We meet each week
to discuss the triumphs and successes of our students and to plan how we can
further these and help those who have not yet achieved. Along with the chocolate box, we share our
knowledge, experiences, resources, strategies used with our class. There is a mutual respect for each other and each
of our unique characteristics are celebrated.
Our teaching strengths are utilised and we gain support in areas we are
not so confident in, which in turn benefits our students who get the best of
all their teachers.
The other Cop is a group of former colleagues and friends that I meet
with on a regular basis. We discuss our
practice, new initiatives and how we can improve our teaching and outcomes for
our students. This is an informal and a
very open format meeting – sometimes enticed with food. As we are now all in very different positions
and our roles are varied the knowledge shared is invaluable. We encourage each to persevere and offer each
other new ideas or innovations to trial.
This Community of Practice is a safe place where there is no
judgement. These colleagues offer a
listening ear to the never-ending juggling act that we all take on board when
becoming an educator. How do we become
the best teacher we can and help all our students be successful, while making
time for family, study, exercise, and extra-curricular activities?
While both these Communities of Practice are very different, the common
domain or passion for both is improving student learning and success. I am lucky to be a part of both and hope that
my contributions help my colleagues as much as theirs have helped me.
References
Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems.
Organization, 7(2), 225-246.
Wenger-Traynor, E. & Wenger-Traynor, B. (2015). Introduction to
communities of practice. A brief overview of the concept and its uses.
Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-
practice/
Hi Amy, You are indeed lucky to be working in a CoP that is so supportive, however I know from experience that in order to stay a positive influence every member of that CoP needs to continually contribute to the community and commit to the norms in order for it to remain a productive group. Clearly you value the the support you gain from belonging, and so are motivated to keep it functioning positively.
ReplyDeleteI also have a 'support group' of teaching colleagues that met regularly to talk through the struggles and successes of the job. I wonder if this is something more familiar to women, who often have such groups in their lives in a less formal way.
Anyway - keep up the involvement and mutual support - you can only benefit from the collective wisdom of colleagues.
Hi Amy, You are indeed lucky to be working in a CoP that is so supportive, however I know from experience that in order to stay a positive influence every member of that CoP needs to continually contribute to the community and commit to the norms in order for it to remain a productive group. Clearly you value the the support you gain from belonging, and so are motivated to keep it functioning positively.
ReplyDeleteI also have a 'support group' of teaching colleagues that met regularly to talk through the struggles and successes of the job. I wonder if this is something more familiar to women, who often have such groups in their lives in a less formal way.
Anyway - keep up the involvement and mutual support - you can only benefit from the collective wisdom of colleagues.
Thank you so much for your comments. You are so right and I had not thought about it from this angle but to keep our CoP positive each of us does continually contribute and commit to the norms. I'm not sure about it being more familiar to women? I can say that my husband has his own CoP's and while the culture, contributions and discussions are quite different to mine, he definitely benefits from the wisdom of his colleagues too.
DeleteHi Amy, it sounds as though you have two very supportive COPs to call upon which is awesome. It occurred to me that, a definite advantage of your ILE being a newly established one is that all of you are on equal footing and can work together to develop a joint competence. I realise that there may be differing levels of experience within this new group, but because it is new, you are all able to establish norms and common practices as you work together within this new and exciting environment.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy,
ReplyDeleteSo glad to know you are enjoying your new school. Many fruitful and productive meetings have been brought about by food (especially chocolates). The ILEs sound wonderful (and challenging?). Sounds like you have a great team of people around you who will have a fresh perspective on things. 'Old' friends are also a great support system as they know what you have been through and can provide a soft place to land on and a sympathetic ear. Sounds like you have the best of both worlds.