Communities Of Practice. Mind Lab Week 25.

A community of practice is a group of people who use their collective wisdom, experience and academic interests to consider, debate and clarify thinking. In the context of professions such as teaching, our communities of practice are the platforms upon which we build and arrange our personal and / or professional position on issues that matter to us as professionals. We try out ideas on each other and use the process of the Inquiry and Advocacy (Hands on Educational Consultancy PTY Ltd) Approach to test each other's thinking, and help each other to probe deeper by challenging ideas.

Wenger (2002) states that "Communities of practice are the basic building blocks of a social learning system because they are the social 'containers' of the competencies that make up such a system. By participating in these communities, we define with each other what constitutes competence in a given context " By engaging with our communities of practice, we uncover the layers of our thinking in order to unearth the essential elements of what we as leaders of our learning community believe are the basis of our core business: providing quality opportunities to raise student outcomes and all of the multi layered contexts that this implies.

My Main Community of Practice is the school where I work. Within that community are sub communities that make up the larger community. Of these communities the one that I am most influenced by, is the Senior Leadership team of which I am a part. Our community is the Principal and two Deputy Principals. The Principal works in our shared office and we engage on a daily basis in learning conversations where we debate and challenge each others thinking.  We are focused on the  primary function of our profession which is to ensure the delivery of the best opportunities for our children to grow into life long learners who are confident, connected and caring citizens. I contribute to this community of practice by bringing my training, experience, professional studies, and passion to the current focus; that of creating the best innovative learning community that we are able.

Within the context of our school there are several other communities of practice. These include communities within teaching teams;  Professional Learning Groups where teachers share their Teaching as Inquiry processes with groups from across the school. Other communities are the  curriculum or special shared interest groups. Also there is the community of practice that is made up by the Middle Leaders in the school.

Communities of practice, allow us to reflect on our practice in a more public forum than personal reflection may. One may have a feeling but can not identify or clarify where that thought is leading until it is articulated to one's peers. Finlay (2008) says that "for some, reflective practice simply refers to adopting a thinking approach to practice. Communities of practice allow us to do this more explicitly (assuming the community is a 'safe' one).

When I think of my communities of practice, I am mindful that communities of practice contribute to a person's professional and personal growth. The face to face communities that I am involved with include my Professional Learning Group that came out of a previous school; a group that I facilitate a Middle Leaders course with; the School Leaders Network; New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning leaders network (which was the inspiration behind the name of my professional blog) and Mind Lab fellow students. All of these networks contribute to my thinking about best practice.

The specialist areas of practice that I bring to my community, essentially lie in my coaching and mentoring experience. I have had considerable training in coaching and mentoring and these areas of practice, combined with my years in the classroom, leadership experience and passion for  Restorative Practice are what I bring to my communities of practice.