Activity 2: Current Issues in my Professional Context - Week 26

I teach at Taupo Primary School which is a State Integrated School for Year 1 to 6 students. We have a proud history and hold the mantle of being the oldest school in Taupo first opening in 1894 and still on its original site. We even have the original building onsite although this is no longer used as a classroom.  The school has a decile rating of 5 and has held this rating for a number of years. The roll is capped at 500 as we have a limited footprint in area and are restricted as to the number of buildings we can accommodate. As a result of increasing role size, the school introduced a zoning system approximately three years ago and this has since been amended once again in an effort to reduce our catchment area. We have many enrolment applications than are impossible to take which is in itself incredibly frustrating for whanau who live nearby but are in effect out of our school zone due to our central location within the town and the proximity of other nearby schools. Another issue the school has is the transient nature of some families within the community. Factors that influence this may be due employment opportunities, lack of affordable accommodation or changes in family circumstances.

Our school has a diverse range of families at both ends of the spectrum and like many social communities, it is made up of a variety of communities of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, status in society, and experiences. In my opinion this range of cultural diversity is essential in encouraging our learning community as well as our wider community to value what each other have to offer. Diversity leads to a deeper understanding and respect of each other’s cultures. This fits in nicely with our school values and vision. Our values focus on respect while our vision is that of ‘Hooked on Learning’.

Stoll (1998) defines school culture along three dimensions, the relationship among its members; the organisational structure including the physical environment and management system; and the learning nature. She suggests that some internal and external factors that shape a school's culture include the school's history, the students' socio-economic background, external contexts such as national educational policies, and societal changes (Stoll, 1998).

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the socioeconomic status of a family is “a combination of education, income and occupation” (APA, 2016). The socioeconomic status of a community reflects the collective background of the families residing there. “Children from low SES families tend to have significantly lower levels of school success in terms of academic achievement than children from middle and high SES families” (Ball 2000, as cited in Thrupp, 2006, p.2).  Salvatore Gargiulo (2014) illuminates the issue of child poverty in NZ in his report.  The sobering statistic is, a quarter of children living in New Zealand lives in poverty and most will remain there permanently. Reflecting on this, it is difficult to know if these statistic tell the true story of the students at our school. Regardless, it is important to understand and consider some of the issues facing our students and their families and the effect these may or may not have in terms of their education.

The school is a welcoming community with a friendly environment. Relievers often comment on how warm and easy going the staff are and most of them seem to enjoy their teaching experiences. We endeavour to accommodate a sense of cultural respect and diversity through providing opportunities for whanau to embrace our school community with such initiatives as an ‘open door policy’, whanau hui, regular powhiri to welcome new students, meet the teacher picnics and student led conferences. We maintain constant and regular contact with our community through platforms such as Seesaw and Class Dojo. In return our community shows support for the school and its tamariki with huge support for kapa haka, sports days, class trips and a myriad of other necessary fund raising events.

Real improvement cannot come from anywhere other than within schools themselves and 'within' is a complex web of values and beliefs, norms, social and power relationships and emotions (Stoll, 1998). Our school is a constantly changing beast. We have numerous challenges on a daily basis. What do we do? We take them in our stride! New ILE's, rapidly advancing and ever changing digital technologies, and constant changes to learning and professional development mean we have to constantly rethink our pedagogies. All of these influences into our daily teaching make life interesting. We work hard to do the best for our students and this can lead to increasingly stressed and exhausted staff. We are extremely fortunate to have a Community of Practice that is amazing in every sense of the word! 

References

APA. (2016). Education and Socioeconomic Status. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/education.aspx

Gargiulo, S. (2014). Principal sabbatical report. Retrieved http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Principals-sabbatical-reports/Report-archives-for-2007-2015/Secondary-award-recipients-2014#G

OECD. (2015). Education at a Glance 2015: OECD Indicators. OECD Publishing, Paris.DOI. Retrieved from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2015_eag-2015-en

Stoll, L.(1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. https://app.themindlab.com/media/31251/view

Reflective Practice

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE - Week 25

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Wenger, 2011, p1). The purpose of the community of practice is create, expand and exchange knowledge and to develop individual capabilities (Knox, 2009). With this in mind, it’s fair to say that each and every one of us belong to some community of practice, either through our profession, with friends and families or other interactive communal groups. It is within these communities that we learn in our everyday lives as we interact and share in the aim of enhancing learning and managing knowledge with like-minded practioners. Wenger suggests that some of these communities are ‘so familiar that they often escape our attention (Wenger, 2011, p3). I guess we take these communities of practice that we are immersed in for granted and in the past I guess I have been guilty of not recognizing or fully understanding the part that I play in these practices. Wenger (2011, p3) goes on to say that ‘when the community of practice is given a name and brought into focus, it becomes a perspective that can help us understand our world (and our student’s worlds) better’. I think that within our practices particularly in an educational context it is about being aware of and recognizing those interactions and conversations we have with each other and our students where we ‘share experiences and knowledge in free-flowing, creative ways that foster new approaches to problems’ (Wenger and Snyder, 2000).

Wenger suggests that the Community of Practice has three elements. The domain, the community and the practice. Within the domain we have a group of people who have shared interests and are committed to these interests. The community involves these domain members engaging in collaborative activities and discussions, helping each other, and sharing information. These people build relationships that enable them to learn from each other; they care about their standing with each other. The practice element is where this group of people develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).

My Community of Practice

I guess in reality, I am a member of a number of communities of practice. As Wenger points out; in some we are core members, while in other communities we are merely participating on the periphery (Wenger, 2011, p3). With this in mind, The Mindlab group is a prime example of a community of practice. I am extremely fortunate that within our school there is a group of five of us are participating on this shared learning journey together and while we have a diverse range of teaching backgrounds, experiences, skills and ages, we all have a shared vision and vested interest in improving the learning of both our students and ourselves. Being part of the Mindlab community of practice has also been outstanding in its capacity in creating networking opportunities with colleagues from other schools and backgrounds.

The other community of practice I resonate with in a somewhat greater capacity still is that of Taupo Primary School. I have been a teacher at the school for the past 15 years and during that time have taught at all levels at some point in time or another and also taken on many other roles and responsibilities. It has been an interesting journey and I have gained a wealth of knowledge from some inspiring and dedicated members of this ‘shared community’. Within this community at present, my role is somewhat diverse in itself. I have a rather unusual role where for the first two hours of the day my time is taken teaching Reading Recovery to a small group of students. For the remainder of the day I teach Maths and Reading to a number of small targeted intervention groups. This puts me in the position of being an ‘independent’ and while I don’t have the joy of being part of a syndicate (and therefore have no team meetings!) I still have a great deal of interaction with my colleagues through staff meetings, professional development and such occasions as informally sitting around gas-bagging in the staffroom or around the photocopier.

References

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. (2011). Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction. Retrieved from https://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/cop/doc/wenger.doc

Wenger, E. and Snyder, W. (2000). Communities of Practice: The Organisational Frontier
Harvard Business Review. January-February 2000. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier

Wenger-Trayner, E. & B. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice: A brief overview of the concept and its uses. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Hi Everyone - Welcome to my reflective journal! Here I'll hopefully post some insightful musings as I go about reflecting on my practice. Please feel free to leave comments if the mood takes you. I'm open to all thoughts, views and opinions! Happy Days!