My Community of Practice

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

A community of practice is one in which “groups of people who share a concern or a passion or about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p.4).  

The Kaipatiki Story - background
I work in a small (260 chn) urban school on the North Shore in Auckland.  I have worked within the community for over 20 years in two different schools. The local cluster of schools have worked together in a professional community for all of that time.  The eight local  schools: the special school, 5 primaries, intermediate and college have collaborated to improve communication and practice across our cluster.  We have focused on assessment practices in our schools from year 1-10, moderation techniques, integration of ICTs in our programmes, transitions between schools, and most recently home school partnerships.  The school leaders have always met regularly (once per term) to discuss common issues, plan for events and look for professional learning that meets the needs of the larger community. We have held combined staff and board meetings over the years to provide a forum to present a single message, work towards a shared goal or find the 'enthusiasts' within our schools to step up and lead initiatives. 
We have been an ICT cluster, an Innovation Contract group, a Learning Change Network, and are now looking towards the challenges and  opportunities offered by being a Community of Learning. 
The drivers in these professional networks have always been the desire to improve student achievement, share collective wisdom and take advantage of strengths within and across schools.
We have also recognised the need to celebrate the successes, skills and strengths of our community in order to maintain participation in the local education pathway.  We have shared community events and performances that allow us to do this. 
Overall and in general this has been a long term productive partnership that has benefited all schools  over time and to differing levels of embedded change.   

The three elements of community of practice at play in this community are:
Domain:
The shared domain of interest includes both student achievement and strengthening the education pathway within the local area.  There is an imperative to sustain enrolment of local students beyond primary school, and we have collectively set targets for reading, writing and maths across the cluster that will shape individual school targets. 
Community:
The cluster community commits to regular professional meetings, both within and across schools, to identify and share good practice, growing leadership capacity within the cluster to support improvement in professional practice in our classrooms from ECE through to Year 13. We already have a cross-cluster maths group that meets regularly to share practice, moderate assessments and develop quality home-school partnership practices.  This model will be repeated for literacy, both reading and writing.
Practice:
The structure of the community allows for us to have expert teachers providing leadership within and across schools, and expert leaders providing support for other school leaders in implementing change and embedding new practices in their own schools. It gives a forum for discussion, for challenging assumptions and 'sacred cows' of school practice, and for 'blue sky thinking' that might provide the seed for an innovation that benefits all the community members. It expands the scope of experience to the whole cluster, not just a single school, and provides a common language for how we talk about student progress and achievement.  

My role in the Community:

I have worked in the community for more than 20 years, and am very invested in the success of our local schools, with my own children having been through or still in the pathway.  As leader of a school that is small but growing rapidly, my role is fundamentally about leadership and growing new leaders to support the changes ahead. I am an active 'cog in the wheel' both within our school and across the wider cluster that is our Community of Practice.
My understanding of communities of practice is that dependent on the purpose of the group, a person's role can and should change.  There will be times will I will take a leadership position, responsible for facilitating and directing discussion and action to achieve a specific goal of the CoP.  At other times I will be a member of the group, working alongside my peers and colleagues to achieve a common goal.  If we are truly looking to build leadership capacity within our CoP then I see my role more as a mentor, support person or coach, as opposed to the more traditional role of the Principal as Leader.  
It is exciting times and we are excited by both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. 

REFERENCES:

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

Wenger-Traynor, E and B (2015)  Communities of Practice - A Brief Introduction 

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

Earl. L (2016)  Building and Connecting Learning Communities. Presentation fro University of Auckland.

Education Review Office (2015)  Accelerating Student Achievement - a resource for schools.