Week 26: Community of Practice and Situated Learning

Week 26 Community of Practice and Situated Learning

1: What is the organisational culture  (collective values/principals) that underpins your practice?
 As I pondered about this question, it made me reflect on the values and principals not only that I have but also the school in which I work. I created this word cloud to show the values and principals of the community I work in as well as my own.

These documents  are from our school charter that underpin our organisational culture values and principles.

As a organisation, we look at these reflect, and re evaluate that these are what we believe in as a staff. As a school we are focused on students well being and developing them as learners as well as supporting their emotional needs.

As a school we work with our school community, recognising and valuing the different cultures within our organisation. We have a parent community  group which also helps in the organisation of our school and building connections within our school community. 

As a school we value our students  and their learning.  We show this through not only our class environments but also the school environment through the activities that students can do at break times. Our school grounds also reflect as a school what we value. As a school this is also recognising the different cultures and needs of our students.  As Naim Kapucu (2012) stated, 'Forming communities of practice provides participants with an environment that combines knowledge and practice and the opportunity to learn through relationships with their peers and practitioners in the community.'

How would you contribute to fostering a positive professional environment on your community of practice?

I contribute to fostering a positive professional environment through  the relationships that I develop with the students I work with, their families and the staff I work with.  Through my role within the school, not only as a classroom teacher but also as SENCO & Co leading e-learning, I have to develop a professional practice. As SENCO I have to work with other agencies for the well being of our students, as well as for parents. Through this role I support teachers with students and am also developing my own knowledge in this area. Through E-learning I  help to develop staff knowledge and understanding of the integration of digital technologies within our school to support students learning. I also develop students learning.  'Learning is a social process taking place within the context of our daily actions and experiences' (Smith 2003, 2009).
As a staff we work together for the students that we teach. We share ideas and work along side each other. I believe that the school I work, in fosters a positive professional environment for all.

Naim Kapucu (2012). Classrooms as Communities of Practice: Designing and Facilitating Learning in a Networked Environment  (2016). Naspaa.org. Retrieved 24 June 2016, from http://www.naspaa.org/jpaemessenger/Article/VOL18-3/11_Kapucu.pdf 

4: What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would you community of practice address them? 

From our data we noticed that a high percentage of our Maori students were not achieving where they should be. This year our school has employed a teacher to develop a Maori curriculum as well as the language across the school and community.  The purpose of this is to acknowledge our Maori students and their culture in the aim to improve their achievement as well as other others learners. According to 'Ka Hikiti  the importance of identity, language and culture – teachers knowing where their students come from, and building on what students bring with them; and on productive partnerships among teachers, Māori learners, whānau and iwi.  

Our staff all have different backgrounds and are all at different stages of using Te Reo. Therefore,  each week as part of our meeting time we learn a new phrase etc. this we can take back to our classrooms. We have also developed groups within each class that work once a week with the specialised teacher to develop their knowledge of the maori language and culture. Within my class these students have become the leaders of the language and share their learning with the wider class. Ka Hikiti document states, 'Evidence shows high-quality teaching is the most important influence the education system can have on high-quality outcomes for students with diverse learning needs'. 

Since the introduction of this staff are becoming more confident with the use of the language in our classrooms and the students are using the language more within the class, playground and greeting staff. 

With the continuing of this we are hoping to see a growth of our students progress in particular that of our Maori students. 

TĀTAIAKO competencies

Each competency describes related behaviours for teachers at different stages of their teaching career, and what the results could look like for learners and their whānau.

Class notes:

We are to explore different aspects of our community of practice and how these impact on us. These aspects include shared assumptions, values, beliefs or, in other words, the organisational culture within which you operate socially and professionally.

Stoll and Fink (cited in Stoll, 1998) identified 10 influencing cultural norms of school improvement including:

“1. Shared goals - “we know where we’re going”

2. Responsibility for success - “we must succeed”

3. Collegiality - “we’re working on this together”

4. Continuous improvement - “we can get better”

5. Lifelong learning - “learning is for everyone”

6. Risk taking - “we learn by trying something new”

7. Support - “there’s always someone there to help”

8. Mutual respect - “everyone has something to offer”

9. Openness - “we can discuss our differences”

10. Celebration and humour - “we feel good about ourselves”” (p.10)

School Culture

As stoll (19980 defines school culture as three dimensions, the relationships among its members; the organisational structure including the physical environment and the management system; and the learning nature.

As Schein (1985, p.6) stated 'the basic essence of an organisation’s culture to be:

the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organisation’s view of itself and its environment'

In primary schools, care and control influence their culture (Hargreaves et al., 1996), such that when students leave primary school there is a feeling that they have left a family (Ruddock, 1996)