My Community of Practice as...'Teacher'

"Participating in these 'communities of practice' is essential to our learning.  It is at the very core of what makes us human beings capable of meaningful knowing".

                                               Wenger, (2000)

Activity #1:
As humans, we are social beings, interacting with a multitude of different groups of people, creating networks for different reasons but always taking 'learning' from these connections whether intended or not.  Wenger (2000) surmises it is within these CoP where we will find 'meaningful knowing'.

We seek to find 'those' who are similar to us, the people we feel most akin to when forming our 'network of learning' and 'those' who will support us as we support them.  Within my school, I work within a recently formed vertical team/syndicate which is my immediate community of practice, but it is yet another community of practice I thrive in and not this one.


Who are my CoP?
These are the 'like-minded' people who set out to uplift their pedagogy to further improve teaching practices which in turn, best meets the needs of students and their learning.  These are the people who do not 'stand still' for long, they are reflective in their practices and are willing to improve, adapt or change for the betterment of their practices and students and enjoy the company of 'others' who mirror the core values of the community of 'like-minded-ness'.  They are willing to share what they know and willingly learn alongside others.  They look to further connect and interact with others forming new networks.  Within this CoP, dynamic relationships have formed not only between colleagues I work and have worked alongside but also from the connections formed through other mediums such as online groups (eg facebook, twitter) or learning groups (eg educamps).  These are my friends and colleagues I trust and respect.  These are teachers.

I have acquired a great deal from these colleagues over the years and I hope I have in return, done the same for them in terms of mutual sharing of resources (in its many forms) and knowledge.  Learning often brings viewing the world around us with new lenses or new eyes, putting things into different perspective.


What is my practice?
I have taught within the Primary School sector for more than 20 years now, with at least half of this time within the Junior end of the primary school, and over this time, I have seen how effective and essential a CoP can be but I have also seen how some within these communities have been toxic to the community of learning and practice.

Wenger talks about 'competence' developed through direct participation within the group and the norms and expectations formed through the engagement and interactions of its participants and here within lies the core values (for me) - where we are fueled by further learning, becoming more competent within our craft of teaching by evaluating and examining how we think, scrutinizing our teaching practices and questioning why we do what we do.  Critically looking at oneself is not always a comfortable experience, this act may be a little painful but this learning in itself allows choices and decisions to be made :)

Image retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/allisonpollard10?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview

References:
Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems.  Organisation, 7(2), 225-246.  Retrieved from sagepub.com.