My Community of Practice

What is a Community of Practice?

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner (2015) on their website define a Community of Practice as  "...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."

They have identified three characteristics of Communities of Practice, which I will use to look deeper into my practice.

 

The Community

This relates to the members who share a common interest, goal or key issue. They interact and learn together to make improvements to their practice. I see my whole school as one community, my syndicate as another and certain staff members as another. 

As a staff we have identified the school wide goal of “Improving literacy among boys”, so we have a shared goal and we participate in professional development, have conversations, share stories, create/develop resources and work towards a solution. 

I sometimes find this community  difficult to embrace, as with any group of people there are a range of personalities and as Cheryl Doig points out, in her Edtalk video, "Working with people is the hardest skill". Having been brought up in the 1960's, it is often difficult for me to put forward my ideas and opinions, fearing I may be out of line or just plain wrong!

   

My syndicate however, strive towards a range of goals. We share stories, resources, ideas and learn from each other. This is at a more informal level, which I find comfortable and I am more than happy to interact in this environment. In this arena I feel more of a sense of belonging due to the relationships we have built. In the video "Cultivating Communities of Practice - Making them Grow" there is an emphasis on nurturing participants and allowing them freedom to have different levels of interest. Lets face it, we are not always going to have the same degree of passion for every issue or goal. 

My final community of learning are those teachers I share a vision with and whom I relate to on a personal level. This is the community that I feel the most "myself" in. It is the one that is built around trust. I enjoy learning in this community because I feel strongly about our shared vision, which centres around providing our students with the skills to take them into the future.

   

The Domain

This is the shared interest, inquiry or issue of the group.  Sometimes as a staff we may not all agree on the issue or on a way forward. I think it is important for all members of the group to have some input but I understand you are never going to get 100% buy-in all of the time. Looking at my own practice it can be difficult to decide which issue to tackle first and sometimes my idea of what is important varies from the mainstream. I really like Gibbs model for reflection and am keen to try it out because I think examining your feelings, regarding an issue, is a good starting place as it will help me reflect honestly.  

 

The Practice (Also called the shared repertoire - Wenger 2000)

This refers to the shared resources, experiences, stories, tools and "...ways of addressing recurring problems", (Wenger-Trayner, E & B, 2015). I am always keen to try new ideas in an effort to improve outcomes for my students. Sometimes though, I need to carry out more research before I go charging in with all guns blazing! Because I like to use digital technology to engage my students, I tend to implement them before I have fully worked them out. Sometimes this is okay as we can learn together but other times it becomes a problem, which causes students to disengage. 

“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.”
― Yvonne Woon

References:
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.