Community of practice

What is a community of Practice? 
B. Knox(2009) states that "A community of practice is a group of people who share a passion for something they know how to do and interact regularly to do it better".

At the beginning of the year our school joined the Communities of Mathematical Inquiry concept, developed by Bobby Hunter in order to raise maths achievement in low decile schools. So "doing Maths at our school looks a little bit different theses days". (NZ Maths website). First of all there is no teacher at the front of the class, children are divided into mixed ability groups who work together to solve practical mathematical problems, based on their home or school contexts. When we joined this initiative we were told that we as teachers would be on our own learning journey. Our beliefs about teaching would be challenged as we rethink the roles and responsibilities of the students within our classrooms. So I am pleased we have community of practices built into our professional development.

Our community of practice works in two cycles. 
We have workshops once a term where we meet up with teachers from other schools. On the surface, we discuss how we are finding the programme and share ideas of what is working well of not. But after reading  Wenger's Focus on communities (2000), I realise we are building our competencies in building communities of mathematical inquiry. We are grouped in the year levels we teach and we discuss how we grapple with the our new learning. We share, honestly, what went went wrong and what steps we took to try and fix it.  We are bound together by our  developing understanding about these mathematical communities of learning.  I realise that we are also building our community through mutual engagement as we discuss what we have gained from the visits of our mentors, as well as discussing what we have tried ourselves. By engaging with each other as trusted partners, we are building our own repertoires of resources by listening to how other teachers grapple with their own learning. We often come away from these valuable workshops with a renewed sense of  "yes I am on the right track and what I can try next."

Our other community of practice is within our own school environment, on a more casual basis with a colleague as well as in staff and syndicate meetings. It has grown out of the need to discuss how our learning is progressing, or if we are having difficulties. This community of practice at school is keeping the level of learning energy alive. We have great leaders who encourage the development, identify the gaps and address these gaps. We have a good depth of social capital because we trust each other and because we are all in this together so we are all giving and receiving help.   

So what is my position in our community of practice?
Because we are all on this learning journey I feel I am very involved in this community. As a school we are all committed to participating in staff, syndicate meetings and there is often a discussion in the staffroom about an issue  that has been brought up. 
 I feel my role varies as we go through the programme.  I was very much a new comer at the beginning of the year, now I see myself as an active member most of the time, as I trial the programme and reflect on my own progress. I am happy to participate in discussions about what works and why. I  also feel comfortable to ask  when I need guidance. I act as a facilitator when teachers ask me to guide them with issues they are grappling with. And I act as a leader when leading my syndicate in discussions about our students' progress.

Wenger (2000)states that Learning is defined as an interplay between social competence and personal experience. He claims it is a dynamic two way relationship between people and the social learning system in which they participate. I think this is probably the best way we as a professional body can improve our teaching practice. 




References

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

TKI NZ Maths. The home of Mathematics education in New Zealand  retrieved from 
        https://nzmaths.co.nz/mathematics-inquiry-communities  

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