Community of Practice

The idea of writing a personal Blog is one which appears to strike fear into many of our hearts. Pushing us way out of our comfort zones and a thought which has caused me to procrastinate for far too long. What have I got to say? It is obvious now that this journal isn't about what I say but rather what I think and how I feel about it and how I will put thoughts into action within my community of practice.

As defined by Wenger:

• Joint enterprise: is a shared domain which is the “collectively developed understanding of what the community is about”.

• Mutual engagement: within the community, the members engage through interactions, building mutual trust in the relationships.

• Shared repertoire: is “the communal resources” that the community of practice produce 

Wenger (2000) defines a community of practice by three elements: joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and shared repertoire.

Embracing the definition of a Community of Practice from Wenger-Trayner is crucial for our communities to work together for improved outcomes for our tamariki.

"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 have belonged to many Communities of Practice with varying degrees of success. Each one has been created to improve educational outcomes for our students.

A successful learning community can only shift thinking and change practice for the benefit of all stakeholders by allowing rethinking, redesigning and recreating to happen.

My Community of Practice

I am a year 5/6 teacher in a low decile school in South Auckland. I have many roles within the school and have taught in New Zealand for 16 years. My prime role is as one of the digital learning teachers. I work alongside my colleague Stuart who is also part of the Mindlab CoP which is enabling us to do exactly what Knox states:

"To create, expand and exchange knowledge, and to develop individual capabilities". (Knox, 2009).

The Domain of the community is the Primary school itself centred in the heart of our small community. The community has Primary and Intermediate aged pupils. We have a shared School Strategic plan developed by staff and the Board of trustees to increase academic achievement for our pupils as well as embracing the core values of the school. There is cohesion across the school through shared professional development and weekly staff meetings.

The Community is encouraged to interact on a daily basis through formal and informal discussions and interactions. Staff meetings, team meetings, Tutor teacher meetings, attending and running professional development sessions, exchange of emails for admin purposes are all ways that we engage to discuss, think, design and create new learning. We frequently visit each others classes, share ideas and resources. This has been extended to include collaboration by sharing planning and digital resources within the Google Drive and within our school Google+ site which was developed by Stuart and myself as part of the Mindlab assignments. I have often felt like an old dog learning new tricks when I have embraced digital learning opportunities. Attending ULearn and EduCamps and contributing to the NZteachers Facebook page and Twitter have helped me to learn new skills, exchange ideas and create new thinking. I often look to our new teachers to inspire me and challenge my thinking and in return offer advice and encouragement to others. 

In Practice the shared repertoire our teaching staff produce is now digitally accessible as we upload to our server and also share through Google services. Through in depth discussion we also develop new knowledge and frequently challenge deficit thinking.

References:

Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

Wenger-Trayner B, Wenger-Trayner E. (2015), Introduction to Communities of Practice. A brief overview of the concept and its uses. http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/.

Wenger,E.(2000).Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7(2), 225-246.