Mindlab - Week 19 - Communities of Practice

MINDLAB – WEEK 19 – COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

For this week's Blog, I am going to be looking at two Inquiry Topics and how they relate to my Community of Practice. The Community of Practice is a concept that we as teachers have been involved in, either directly or indirectly, without realizing that there is a term to describe this practice. As a team, we plan our Inquiry topics for the term and we try to link these topics to our school-wide goals for the year. Communities of Practice provide an environment for people to connect, interact, build and extend the shared resources to shared learning goals. (Kaplan, and Suter – 2005)

In his video Knox (2009) said a Community of Practice, requires three key areas – community (mutual engagement), domain (joint enterprise) and practice (shared repertoire).

For my first topic, I wanted to encourage, promote and change the mindset of the boys in my school to participate other areas of sport, apart from Rugby Union and Rugby League. I felt that this topic will link in well with Developing a Growth Mindset and it will support what I have discussed in my Leadership 1 assignment in Digital and Collaborative Learning.

For my second topic, I wanted to develop a network of communication, support, sharing of ideas and resources between Hard Materials teachers in Auckland and how do we get Outside agencies to support what we do in our Technology classrooms. I want my students to see the link between learning a Technology subject at school and how it influences their future career choices when they complete school.

For my second topic, it is something that I was constantly thinking about, but now I have a platform to expand all my ideas and put a plan in place on how I could achieve this.

To explore and unpack these two topics, I am going to be using the Jay and Johnston reflective model.

Descriptive What is happening? Is this working and for whom? How am I feeling? What do I not understand?
Teaching at an Intermediate School provides students an opportunity to adequately prepare themselves to be successful learners at college. At the moment, the boys at my school only focus on 2 codes of sport, Rugby Union, and Rugby League. At times, it is difficult to put a team together to compete in other codes of sport, like cricket, basketball, baseball, etc. The mindset amongst the boys is the other sports are ‘Gay.’ This is disappointing because I find my students limiting themselves to learning, participating and competing in other sports codes. The challenge is how do I change the mindset of my students and my colleagues to promote and teach these sports codes.	After teaching for almost 3 decades, I now find myself frustrated and uninspired by teaching the same processes and activities each year. I want to try and do something different. Something that is going to reinvigorate my passion and inspire my students to become the future leaders in Technology Development. I need to establish a network of collaborating with other teachers in my curriculum area. To find out what they are doing differently in their classroom. I also need to develop a link with Outside Agencies that can showcase to my students the career opportunities available in the Technology field.
Comparative How do other people who are involved or indirectly involved describe what’s happening? What does research contribute to an understanding of this matter? How can I improve what is not working
This lack of enthusiasm in not wanting to participate and learn other codes of sport is a concern that was shared by a few of my colleagues at school. We need to identify the reasons that contributed to this. How do we work collaboratively with all stakeholders, students, teachers and parent community, to bring about change? Firstly, I need to reflect on my leadership style. I need to create a shift from been a Transactional Leader to a Transformational Leader. Vera and Crossan, describe a Transactional leader as someone who,”Set goals, articulates explicit agreements regarding what the leader expects from organizational members and how they will be rewarded for their efforts and commitment, and provide constructive feedback to keep everybody on task." (Vera & Crossan, 2004, p. 224) While, Bass describes a Transformational leader as someone who, “has the potential to promote a co-operative working environment, foster a culture of trust, give regular feedback, provide solutions through times of crises and implement a participative decision-making process." (Bass 1990) Becoming a Transformational leader is imperative to get all the stakeholders to be supportive in creating a change in the mindset of our students.	Initial discussions with my Principal, about this change initiative, is very encouraging. I feel reassured that my Principal and the Board of Trustees will support any PD needed to transform my practice. Changing your practice is about researching into what you do in the classroom: Asking a question about what needs to change and why, and then attempting to enact change through a well thought out plan of action.(MOE, NZ Curriculum Dec 2017) Making a connection with other teachers in the same curriculum area is going to very important step in changing and evolving my current practice. There appears to be an opportunity for teachers to gather, connect, share and develop knowledge using individually tailored pathways, unencumbered by the school’s annual professional development calendar. (p16, Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning, Karen Melhuish 2014) Making connections with Futureintech Facilitators to provide talks and showcase the link between schools and Industry, will be important for my students to start thinking about career pathways for the future.
Critical Reflection What are the implications of the matter when viewed from these alternative perspectives? How does this reflective process inform and renew my perspective?
For an initiative to be successful, it requires strong leadership and guided direction. It requires all stakeholders to be supportive and committed to bringing about a change in the mindset of our students. Working closely with the parent community and getting the support of all teachers will be imperative for the students to challenge themselves to try something new.	Making changes to my practice is not going to be easy. Reflecting on why I want to make these changes and what I hope to achieve by doing this, will be my motivation. Establishing a network with teachers in the same curriculum area and sharing ideas will be a refreshing way of reflecting on what I am doing currently and what I could do better. Making connections with outside agencies will be vital for my students see the connections between school and what happens in the real world.

References:

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L. (2010). School Cultures as Contexts for Informal Teacher Learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 267-277.

Vera, D., & Crossan, M. (2004). Strategic Leadership and Organizational Learning. The Academy of Management Review,29(2), 222-240. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20159030

Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Available from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/009026169090061S?via%3Dihub

Making change / Teaching as inquiry / Kia ora - NZ Curriculum Online

nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz › Teaching as inquiry