Mindlab Week 26 - Current issues in my professional context

Mindlab Activity 2: Week 26

Create a reflective entry where you critically analyse issues of socioeconomic factors, school culture and professional environments in relation to your practice.

The school vision was defined in collaborative consultation with teachers, students and the wider community:

‘A thriving, student centred learning environment, educating students for their future – Te puāwaitanga o te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga.’ 

The most recent ERO report (2017) for Wairarapa College classified it as a '6N' decile in socio- economic status. Wairarapa is a fairly rural part of New Zealand, which has 1062 students from Years 9 through 13, making it the largest school in the local area.  24% of the students self identify as Maori and a much smaller number Pacific Islander students. The Poto-College House, for boarders, accounts for about 70 students or approximately 7% of the total roll. The school has a varied socio-economic background, including students from difficult family backgrounds. There is also a small, but significant programme of welcoming international students to the school. The school aspires to be a high achiever in a sporting and cultural context, with many outlets for students to participate in extra-curricular activities. 

The ERO report also highlights some of the difficulties faced by the school in recent times. The student intake dipped for a few years which had a significant impact upon the finances and staffing situation of the school. There were limitations on budgets which meant resources were limited and maintenance fell away on certain things - including staff morale. A new Principal and a Commissioner now currently leads the school with many of these issues have been specifically addressed in efforts to make amends.

According to Stoll (1998), a school's culture can be shaped by it's history, context and the people within it. Our school dates back to 1938 and the teaching staff are expressly encouraged to see themselves as a family by management. Stoll and Fink (Stoll, 1998) highlighted a series of social 'Norms' that are identified in improving schools, with many of these highlighted in the ERO report, Other strategies to improve school culture highlighted by Gargiulo (2014) can be seen in action too:

• The school's successes (College Sports, Stage Challenge, Chess trophies, etc) are strongly celebrated in assemblies. 
• Targeted students, especially Maori students as a focus for improvement, have been given mentoring and revision strategies are coached in extra-curricular classes. 
• Teachers can nominate others for weekly prizes in weekly staff meetings and shared lunches are provided at various intermittent points in the Term. 
• The school has a literacy and numeracy program to help improve standards, including an embedded Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) time. 
• There is a Positive Behaviour for Learning program in effect. 
• The school's financial difficulties are openly discussed in regular consultation with teachers and other stakeholders of the school. 

Some of these things have been in place for a while, while others are relatively newer aspects of Wairarapa Culture. By mixing older traditions of the school with change, however, there is a general improving positivity in the school. 

References:

http://www.ero.govt.nz/review-reports/wairarapa-college-01-06-2017/

Gargiulo, S. (2014). Principal sabbatical report. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Professional-information/Principals-sabbatical-reports/Report-archives-for-2007-2014/Secondary-award-recipients-2014/Gargiulo-Salvatore

Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture

Mindlab Week 25: My Community of Practice

Mindlab - Week 25 - My Community of Practice

The article 'Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems' (Wenger, 2000) argued that organisations are defined by their effectiveness to enable it's participants to engage with and learn social systems which, in turn, defines a community. For example, in a scientific community, knowledge is a competence that members are engaged in learning about and value, imparting a social learning system to allow their experience to develop within that community.

A 'Community of Practice', therefore can be defined as a paradigm of sorts: whereby members can share collective learning, values and resources and, by participating in this way, define their own identity within it. As noted by Wenger, it can be applied to any group, society, guild, church, institution, corporation, online community or any formal organisational structure. In some respects, this is a theory of epistemology combined with anthropology. In others, it's a theory of effective business management. It is Wenger's contention that by reflecting on the structures involved in Community of Practice, it can be built into a more effective system for progress.

As a teacher, my own school community describes a community of practice based on social learning. It's made up of a network of communities, including my own Department of Science that encompasses eight teachers of Science. Each teacher has their own speciality (Physics, Biology and Chemistry) with a Head of Department for each discipline and an overall Head of Department who is also Head of Physics.

Communities of Practice define 'competence' in three ways (Wenger, 2000): Members are bound together and accountable to a joint enterprise or shared goal, trusted relationships of mutuality are developed through interaction, and a shared repertoire of communal resources (including routines, sensibilities and language, etc).

In my own practice, the enterprise is clearly identified through our departmental goals, which are reviewed each year, but remain essentially focussed on creating a successful programme of study for students within which grades and assessments set targets. The teachers within the school are employed in the long term, along with support staff, so there are various levels of mutualism developed in informal ways. Collaboration is an integrated part of the process of developing a programme of study and sharing the resources necessary to teach any particular part of it. Under these criteria, as an experienced teacher, I must therefore be competent member of my community! However, this community also extends towards the students I teach (as well as the wider community/ whanau) - on a structurally different but more professionally significant level.

While fellow teachers can look to their wages and careers to create a joint enterprise, mutualism and a shared repertoire, students have no such incentive. Some criticism of CoP being 'one size fits all' (Pemberton, Mavin, 2007) is somewhat exemplified by the dichotomy between a generally harmonious implementation of CoP for teachers, and the issues of adopting the ideas to the inherently hierarchal structure of a typical high school classroom.

The Mindlab course has sought to emphasis 21st century key competencies and integrate modern digital technology in a process that, ultimately, is more democratic in design. As such, I can possibly make it a point of personal development in trying to create a community that evolves to be more of a joint enterprise, with mutualism and a shared repertoire at the heart of it.

References: 

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

Pemberton, J., & Mavin, S. (2007). Communities of practice - one size fits all?. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com