My Practice within the Community

Wenger & Treyner-Wenger (2015), recognise that organisations are recognising the importance of Communities of Practice (CoP) as key to improving performance by learning to 'do things better' through regular interaction.

Pollard & Crockett (2014)

Contemplating the CoP concept, I have realised that this year has seen my involvement in a number Communities of Practice, that in someways overlap or intertwine, feeding from or contributing to one another. Considering Wenger & Treyner's characterisation of a CoP, where the shared domain of interest implies a commitment and shared competence, I have come to realise the main CoP I am part of is the Mayfair School Staff, which consists of full-time teachers with sub-groups of the Junior Team I lead and the Senior Management Team I am a part of.  An 'off shoot' of this is the PLG I attend, that consists of Deputy and other Assistant Principals from schools within our area.  The binding commonality and major focus has essentially been our staff Mindlab group, which involves all teaching staff and our Deputy Principal. Being that we are a PB4L school, emerging into the Tier Two phase of the initiative, this shared investment has become a vehicle for many assignment and course task foci. Therefore the Community of Practise I will reflect upon with be Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L).

So the common interest for our shared domain is the desire to improve and develop the citizenship of  students. Teaching and growing our students in their school journey not only to enhance behaviour but also relationships and the school environment. The core members of the PB4L team are the full time teaching staff, with a lead team consisting of our Deputy Principal - Leader, Senior Teacher - Coach with our Principal in the role of support. The full time teaching staff are the core group who are directed in the process, but also actively contribute to planning, ideas, reflection and bring their own expertise in behaviour management, student and home relationship and other relative areas pertaining to PB4L. Support staff are also encouraged to contribute and participate, but do so to a lesser extent.
The peripheral members of this CoP could therefore be considered as students and families, as a key factor within the initiative is to consult with the wider community and students themselves, in a sense enhancing the 'collective competence' (Treyner & Wegner 2015). 

Pollard & Crockett  (2014)

I see collaboration and analysis as a main activity in which our CoP engage. We discuss regularly through small team meetings, whole staff meetings, lunchtime or anecdotal conversation identifying patterns of behaviour or incidents that we see occurring, alongside settings in which these take place. We consult regularly with the broader community and some staff attend the PB4L conference, feeding back to the core group their findings, which are reviewed and provide further discussion points for reflection.

Pollard & Crockett (2014)

       Through collaboration a natural yet structured shared repertoire has been produced by our core team guided by our leadership team. As a result our 4 values of Respect, Identity Resilience and Integrity have been established for our students and our school. These values have been promoted and flow into our broader community. This is the foundation for the culture of our school. A behaviour matrix that aligns with these values has been created by the team which has provided the foundation for us as a team to create lesson plans that explicitly teach to any identified or relevant needs of our students within particular intervals. Regular review of the matrix and data from behaviour is carried out.

Mayfair School - PB4L CoP (2017)

Pollard & Crockett (2014)

       The fact that CoP are more of an 'open space' concept than a group of people using theconcept, membership has fluctuated, and therefore  roles within said CoP have been quite flexible according the context or direction we are heading for each task or assignment and/or changes in staff. However within the environment of our School-wide initiative my initial role was that of an active member, this continues to be my main function, however as the school merges into the Tier 2 phase I have become part of the leadership team also. I contribute by sharing ideas, probing reflective questioning, providing support and expertise in various areas when and where required, including assisting with creation of lesson plans and other supporting materials. I as with the general CoP community have a natural connectedness. Ownership of the values and the initiative is high because the collaboration and consultation process within the CoP is also prominent. An appreciation or affinity toward the domain of our CoP - PB4L, I would say is felt strongly by the core group and in general, the students and families of the school, the outcomes of this programme and the resources established by the CoP have not only benefited the community but also improved the environment of the school significantly. 

Wenger, E., & Trayner-Wenger, B. (2015). Communities of practice: a brief introduction. April 2015, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2277/0521663636

Pollard, A., & Crockett, T. (2014). Creating Strong and Passionate Communities of Practice. Retrieved 

September 11, 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/allisonpollard10/creating-agile-communities-of-practice