Reflective Blog Applied Practice in context: Week 25 Activity 1 My community of practice.

Reflective Blog

Applied Practice in context: Week 25 Activity 1

My community of practice.

Communities of practice can be defined 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.” (Wenger)

In order for a community to be a community of practice there are three characteristics that need to be in place.

The domain: It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. As part of the community of practice there is a commitment to the domain and  a shared competence that distinguishes its members.

The community: In the common interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. The building of relationships enable them to learn from each other.

The practice: Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They have a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems.

(Wenger)

With this knowledge in mind I reflect upon the communities of practice I belong to.  

The first community of practice I identify myself to be part of is a small community of two! My teaching colleague (Jane Thomson) whom I share a M.L.E (modern learning environment) with and myself.  I would say this is the community of practice in which I am most involved and most active. Together our teaching is driven by our common goal to meet the social and academic needs for the 63 students in our class. Included within my role in this community of practice is honouring the professional commitments eg planning, assessing and other school requirements. It is very important that I have a voice and take an equal ownership within this community of practice.

The next community of practice that I belong to is that of the senior teaching team.  This community has very similiar threads as the community of Jane and myself, but has more of a focus of meeting school wide professional commitments. My role within this community is to be an active, supporting, accountable member and to benefit from the skills and knowledge of my colleagues.

The next community I identify with is our school wide staff.  This community whilst bigger than the previous two has the same domain of interest. As a member it is my responsibility (as in the previous communities) to fulfill my professional commitments and requirements and to be held accountable for my practices. This community sees my role differ  as I take more of a “back seat” position the reason being that I am not a main decision maker and the requirements are set for me, these restrictions come from the constraints placed upon schools and education as a whole. Because of this I feel my role in this community is that of a follower rather than a decision maker.

The most recent community of practice in which I am a member is the community of professionals taking part in the MindLab qualifications. This is a community in which I can take full advantage of the wealth of experience and knowledge within its members. It is important to reciprocate and share my knowledge and experiences.  Whilst  I am not held accountable to this community in regards to professional commitments. I do feel obliged to share and participate within the professional discussions.

The casual colleague chats around the water cooler (or coffee pot in my case) gives the idiom "water-cooler talk" a new definition and in my situation when analysed it is actually a community of practice

References:

Etienne Wenger. Excerpted with permission from Wenger, E. (n.d.). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm

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