The Mind Lab - Week 1 (week 25) Blog - APC Reflective Practice - Rosina Wikaira

Week 25 - APC - Reflective Practice

What is a 'Community of Practice'?


Defining my Community of Practice

What is my practice? 
We are 3 primary school Principals in Manurewa who are wanting to improve our practice and pedagogy to improve the educational outcomes  for our students.

According to Wenger, belonging to a 'communities of practice' (CoP), comes naturally to humans. CoP's help us to learn socially, and understand what we need to do to be competent in our profession. By interacting with our colleagues in a CoP, helps us to define the competence required to do our jobs effectively (Wenger, 2000). 

What is my Professional Context? 
We created the PIMP ICT Google+ community of practice in order to collaborate across schools. This innovation would provide an online learning forum that would support our inquiry into our practices, the sharing of ideas and information, celebrating successes, facilitating problem solving, and helping us to inform decision making around the provision and use of digital technologies to support learning/ raising student achievement. This online community of practice would allow our schools the opportunity to continue to collaborate and communicate in addition to our face-to-face meetings, i.e. an anytime, anywhere, any space connection. This is evident in relation to the professional learning and development opportunities we have created for our staff: i.e. Culture Counts, PIMP and Mind Lab.

Participating in these 'communities of practice' is essential to our learning. It is at the very core of what makes us human beings capable of meaningful knowledge." (Wenger, 2000, p. 229).

Who are my Community of Practice? 

I belong to many CoP's that interest me on both a professional and personal level. I am part of a leadership CoP across Manurewa schools called PIMP (Pacific Island Manurewa Principals) which is made up of 4 Pasifika Principals (Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Island and Maori) who along with our staff and communities come together to collaborate in a variety of ways to raise student achievement across our schools  particularly for our predominantly Maori and Pasifika communities. 

Other communities of practices are:

• Manurewa Principals Association (MPA)
• Homai Visible Learning
• Mind Lab November 2015 intake
• Manurewa ICT Cluster
• Waka Ama Haerenga 2016 & Beyond (just to name a few).

Activity One: 

Provide a critical discussion in relation to any two of the following questions:

1. In what ways do you contribute to the community of your practice? Being Maori, I have the tendency to see analyse and reflect on discussions using my kaupapa Maori lenses, ensuring peoples ideas are acknowledged within a safe environment. I also ensure that tikanga processes are in place for all participants to feel valued regardless of how much or how little they have to contribute. I attend our face to face (kanohi ki te kanohi) collaborative meetings as well as our PIMP G+ discussions, both sharing ideas to others conversations or starting one.
2. What are the core values that underpin your profession? Kaupapa Maori principles,

Kaupapa Maori Principles

Tino Rangatiratanga: The Principle of Self Determination

Having the autonomy to control your own aspirations, self-belief and culture. I see this as having the right to participate as much or as little as one feels, as long as the contribution is of worth.

Whanau: The Principle of Extended Family Structure

This is the core value of kaupapa maori. Any group that come together form a whanau-like context, sharing and collaborating ideas, problems and knowledge. Protocols or tikanga is set to protect each member of this whanau so they feel empowered and respected.

 

Ata: The Principle of Growing Respectful Relationships

Within a CoP participants form relational trust, care and responsibility for each other. This is formed through acknowledging each others roles and responsibilities within the group. 

References

• [1] Smith, G. H. (1990) Research Issues Related to Maori Educationâl, paper presented to NZARE Special Interest Conference, Massey University, reprinted in 1992, The Issue of Research and Maori, Research Unit for Maori Education, The University of Auckland
• Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. Organization May 2000 7: 225-246
• Wenger, E., Mcdermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.