Applied Practice in Context - Activity 4

Communities

According to Wikipedia, 

A community is a social unit of any size that shares common values, or that is situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a village or town).  It is a group of people who are connected by durable relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties, and who mutually define that relationship as important to their social identity and practice.  Although communities are usually small, community may also refer to large groups such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities.  

In my mind, community gives one a sense of belonging and helps to form our own identity of who we are and what we wish to be a part of.    We can move from one community to another and, in some instances, never return to a community - this can be of our own choice, or one that we have no control over.

Landscapes of 'Knowing"

Etienne Wenger talks about 'landscapes of knowing'.  After viewing his video , I began to wonder which landscape of 'knowing' I am currently walking through.  Over the course of my life I must have moved through hundreds, if not thousands of landscapes.  How much do my landscapes change when I step between communities, e.g. work, personal, education, virtual, travel?  Is it possible to be the same person in each, or do we change in someway to 'fit' within that landscape?

What is My Community of Professional Practice? 

My current community of professional practice is a new community for me as I have just joined the team of educators at Ormiston Primary School.   

Wenger defines a community of practices as 

a group 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 applied for a position with this 'community' as I believe in their approach to learning and wished to be a part of a team that was still in the process of setting up systems and open to new ideas (their foundation year was 2015).   My role is that of a 'Learning Coach' in a Year 1 and 2 Learning Habitat (a flexible learning space).   I like the change in role name from 'Teacher' to 'Learning Coach' as it reflects a move away from what is perceived to be the role of 'teacher' which can unfortunately still have links to the industrial way of learning.

My community of professional practice can be broken down into the following groups:

• all the educators
• the Learning Coaches within my habitat
• the Learning Coaches and Learners within my habitat

As a new member of this community, I am going through the challenges that anyone passes through when entering a new community - getting to know members of the community, understanding the expectations and protocols of the community and enabling others to learn about me and who I am.   This takes time although these steps are made much easier when the community are open-minded, willing to share and accepting of differences.  The community of educators are able to share ideas and support each other through regular meetings where every voice is heard and all ideas are considered.  Every Learning Coach has a blog and site so we can share our reflections and ideas - learning from each other and posting comments to reaffirm or challenge.

I am still in the early stages of being a member of this community, but I am enjoying the collaborative community - both face-to-face and virtual.    The student community is multi-cultural which makes for an eclectic mix of identities, needs and abilities.  It is a vibrant and fast-growing community - a community that I am delighted to be a part of.

Critical Analysis

I will respond to three questions in relation to my community of practice within my school.  The first being:

What is the purpose and function of my practice?

In what ways do I cater for the community of my practice?

As mentioned above, my purposes within this community is to support the Year 1 and 2 learners in my habitat, and other Learners school-wide through clubs, playground duties, sports groups.  What I do and why I do it is directed by our school vision:

Guarantee every learner engages in innovative, personalised world class learning

This has a major influence on the purpose and function of my practice.   It is a vision that I consider when I plan for the learning with my Learners.   It is also a vision that I consider when I embark on my personal learning journey.  I feel that this vision applies to not only my student learning community, but also to the educator learning community because if we are engaging in innovative, personalised world class learning, then it will have a flow-on effect to our student community.  Within the Learning Habitat, myself and the other three Learning Coaches plan together, discuss our community of Learners and look for ways to provide the optimum learning opportunities.


The second question is:

What are the challenges that I face in my practice?

How would I or my community of practice address them?

My school is in an area of exponential housing growth that is predominantly occupied by immigrants where the child is first generation New Zealander.   The home language is usually not english and this does create a challenge when communicating as well as building a learning environment that transfers seamlessly between home and school.   I am working with 5-7 year old children who require support with literacy development yet it is difficult to have this provided at home when the parents and/or grandparents (which are often the caregivers) do not speak english.  

I am currently exploring ways to utilise technology for reading support within the home.   There are are a range of literacy websites and apps to view and trial with the Learners and we will encourage the use of them for home learning, once they have proved to be successful in meeting the needs of the Learners at school.

The final question is:

What are the core values that underpin my profession?
Evaluate my practise with regard to these values.

The above mentioned vision statement, our school's '4 C' values (capable, curiosity, collaborate and connected) along with the Code of Ethics and Practicing Teacher Criteria are the core values that underpin my profession.  They provide guidance for not only how I engage with learning, but also how I act within not only this community, but other communities as well.  Examples of these other communities are my online presence with my personal learning network and also the community within which I reside.   

I guess this last statement takes me back to Wenger's theory about 'Landscapes of Knowing'.   Even as I transfer between one landscape to another, I take some of the knowledge (of who I am) with me. So even if the landscape is different, remnants of our identity come with us.