ARE YOU A HOARDER?
"If you hoard your knowledge in a social learning system, you quickly appear as taking more than you give, and you will quickly be excluded from the most significant exchanges" Wenger, 2000.
Knox defines a Community of Practice as a group of people who have a shared passion and a group who interacts regularly. The purpose being being able to create and exchange knowledge, and also develop individual capabilities.
This really makes me think about my community of practices I am involved in. I am in a COP by being in the Math Curriculum Team, being involved in the Whanau Roopu, the Teachers Facebook page, Mind Lab G+ Community, my syndicate team, a team of teachers at St Mary's and so it goes on.
The interesting point in this definition is "shared passion" - Do I really have shared passion for the Maths curriculum team?
Or is it something I just have to do?
The teachers FB page, I love, I love the sense of community, ideas, jokes and collegiality I suppose. I love that I can ask and generally get a quick response of something that is helpful. An interesting point I have noted is their are some people who seem to value their opinion far more that others, they purport their expertise often and it gets tiresome.
So the question I have is....Can you share too often?
THREE KEY AREAS
Knox discusses three key areas within a Community of Practice:
DOMAIN being the shared inquiry, key issues are looked at.
PRACTICE Body of knowledge, Collective knowledge.
COMMUNITY The relationship and sense of belonging one feels.
It was interesting listening to Knox stating that "Communities of Practice are fostered NOT created" Again I might argue that many school COP are in fact created rather than fostered.
I would be interested to know others points of view on this.
What I do find to be more accurate is that "Communities THRIVE on peoples personal energy"
On this I would totally agree and say that maybe the "created" COP's I am involved in ARE more successful when people have a personal passion and energy. Different levels of interest and participation will have an effect on any community. I once remember being on a Kindergarten Committee and feeling quite disgruntled that some people hadn't helped out. A friend said to me that people will do what they can do. I suppose that is so true with any community.
I really liked Wenger's defining of a COP as a landscape with hills of knowledge, I suppose some of us choose to climb many hills, some of us climb a few and others of us try the flat route.
Knox, B.(2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
I would be really interested if anyone know what is going on with my font?? I used the same size and style but the post seems to be a bit all over the place!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this Sylvia. I can totally relate to your question around your maths community about whether it was a shared passion. I find that a lot of the time we are put in positions rather than having a passion for it, as this is what is expected of us. At our school we have project teams which I just got put on a team because of professional development that I undertook, rather than actually having a passion for this curriculum area. My question to you now is, should you be in a community if your passion for it is not there, or has faded? I know this may be why a lot of teachers leave the profession.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Kirsten. I'm not sure if a teachers passion fades or whether it is an overwhelming sense of too much to do, not enough family time etc. I think most teachers have a passion for teaching children. If you talk to teachers, you will often hear them say "if I just had to teach the kids, it would be awesome", it's all the "other" stuff that seems to be growing year by year that seems to be grinding people down - I find that such a shame. If you talk with teachers who have been teaching for 30 years or more they say the work load has tripled. I would have been one of those children taught at that time and I turned out ok. I wonder if education is actually any better now than it was then?
DeleteTeams are an interesting concept within a school aren't they? I would love to be on the Literacy team yet am on the Maths and feel my passion a fadin....
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ReplyDeleteKiaora Sylvia~ Love reading your writing. I feel like you are talking with me! Passion based roles within schools are efficient and effective. I wonder if there may be a disconnect between what needs to be done and who will do it! I wonder if those who get asked to fill in a role at school is seen as someone reliable and will get things done. On the flip side I wonder if some leaders are not aware of the passion staff have and, as Kirsten mentioned, assume the role fits because of PLD. It will not be a surprise to you that I believe passion is energising, inspiring and grows vision. Bring on the opportunity to work in our areas of passion at school.
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