Sharlene's Journal - Improving My Practice Through Critical Reflection & Relevant Research

Mind Lab - Week 25: My Practice Within the Community

A  Community of Practice Definition:
Wenger (2000)  defines communities of practice (CoP) as a way for people to engage in collective learning in an area of concern or passion. Through regular interaction, the group learns how to improve their performance. 
Knox (2009) describes the purpose of a CoP is to create, expand and exchange knowledge and to develop individual capabilities. 

A community of practice is defined by three distinct elements: joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire (Wenger, 2000).

• 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, p.229).

My Communities of Practice:

I belong to a newly established Community of Learning (CoL). It is still in the early phase but we have gathered together, local primary schools, early childhood and secondary, to begin developing shared understandings around our achievement challenges. Our purpose is to improve student learning outcomes and to pool our ideas, resources, and expertise together. In this CoP, my role is currently on the peripheral but I hope to become a core member as it establishes further.

Our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) is a small but definite CoP. We have a shared vision and a clear understanding of school direction. With our staff, we go on a learning journey together, towards this vision. Our staff have common goals for improving student learning outcomes and we work tirelessly towards this. Mark Wilson (2013) delivered an inspiring talk about Building a Culture of Success in his Ted Talk. I believe our SLT leads with a strong vision, and as a staff we support each other to build capability, to develop a shared repertoire of resources and improve student learning outcomes. Our aim is always to build on our successes and continue to move towards our school vision, learning as we go.This fits well within Wegner's definition of Communities of Practice (2000) because the staff works in unity towards a shared vision of success.

I recognise that my school colleagues, both at school and through Mindlab, are important Communities of Practice. Together, we take the time to reflect critically, listen to various viewpoints and challenge current perceptions and viewpoints. My involvement with these colleagues has been the most beneficial, possibly due to the smaller numbers in each group which I believe has helped to create a sense of connectedness, frequent communication and a strong sense of relational trust.

It is quite timely that I am building knowledge around my practice within the community and using critical reflection as a way of "being self-aware and critically evaluating", Finlay (2009). Both of these aspects fit with my Teacher Inquiry this year which is around making powerful connections with Parents, Whanau and Family in our Community. I also have a personal goal of improving on my critical reflection which I am sure my Communities of Practice can support me with.

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

ERO, (2015). Ministry of Education: Retrieved from http://www.ero.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Educationally-powerful-connections-summary.pdf


Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file…

TEdEd.(2013, Jun 21). Building a culture of success- Mark Wilson.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8

Wenger, E.(2000).Communities of practice and social learning systems Organization,7(2), 225-246 (Link to the article in Unitec Library).