I must have one of the best jobs. I work as an Education Service Manager with Kidsfirst Kindergartens and have the privilege of providing support, guidance and professional learning for teachers in kindergartens and early learning centres from Christchurch, Greymouth, Hokitika, Franz Josef, Timaru, Fairlie, Twizel and Waimate. What amazing communities. My 'office' has the some of the best scenery in the world. I work with teachers committed to providing the best learning outcomes for young children, parents who want the best for their children, and children who are really enthusiastic learners. My colleagues in the education services team and at head office challenge and extend my thinking and provide the support needed when you have to do the parts of the job that just aren't that pleasant. Below are some photos of some of the communities in which I work.
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| Front Row: Robyn Leckie(ESM), Carol Greenfield (Keynote Speaker from Manukau Institute of Technology), Raewyn Penman (ESM), Janette Clarkin-Phillips (Keynote Speaker from Waikato University), Professor Margaret Carr (Keynote Speaker from Waikato University) Back Row: Lyndell Turner (ESM), Jo Rendall (Manager Ed Delivery) Associate Professor Helen Hedges (Keynote Speaker from Auckland University), Tracey McAllister (ESM), Niki Veele (Presenter from Small Kauris Auckland), Rebecca Chatwin (ESM). |
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| Christchurch City from the Port Hills |
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| Kidsfirst Glacier Country, Franz Josef |
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| Children, parents, iwi, and local community at the opening of Kidsfirst Glacier Country |
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| Timaru, South Canterbury |
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| Lake Pukaki looking towards Aoraki |
I am involved in many communities but what actually makes these communities-of-practice? Etienne Wenger (2002) defines a community of practice as "groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better" (Wenger, 2002, image). Some of the key performance indicators for my position encompass motivating and inspiring teachers to continually improve their teaching practices and the learning outcomes for children. To do this I meet regularly with teaching teams, critique and challenge their pedagogy and participate in ongoing professional learning. Recent research has shown that the most effective ways to facilitate professional learning and development is through providing opportunities for teachers to engage in collaborative, reflective practice which involves active learning and ongoing interactions (Christ & Wong, 2013; Curtis, Lebo, Cividanes & Carter, 2013; Stewart, 2014). The post graduate certificate in digital and collaborative learning I am undertaking has assisted me to find digital ways to promote and engage in these communities of practice which complement the face to face occasions that I am able to engage in.
Other communities of practice that I have become involved in since 2012 are the Learning Community Clusters set up through the Ministry of Education after the Christchurch earthquakes. These communities involve educators from the early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Those that are functioning well have a strategic plan for the group, meet regularly at different levels similar to the fractal structure identified by Wenger (2000), and provide for professional discussions and learning that improve interactions and knowledge across the education sectors. Each cluster has a leader who can act as a broker between the sectors. An example of this is in one cluster where the leader used a recently published book on transitions written by early childhood researchers and teachers to facilitate discussions and professional learning throughout the cluster.
Facilitating and providing professional learning across the teaching teams I work with means that in many ways I need to have a broad knowledge and understanding of early childhood pedagogy. As with most educators I do have areas that I have a greater depth of knowledge and expertise in and try to find ways to build on these areas within my current work. Leadership is one such area. In response to the isolation felt by many of our head teachers in the kindergartens and early learning centres in our organisation a colleague and I led the implementation of peer mentoring groups. These are groups of 4 or 5 head teachers who, after receiving training through NZ Mentoring and Coaching, began meeting termly to provide peer mentoring for each other. The model is based on the professional supervision model generally used in the psychology and social work fields. Head teachers are the pedagogical leaders of their teaching teams, a difficult position at times when you are required to both work alongside teachers and provide critical feedback on their teaching. The groups have been functioning now for four years and feedback from the head teachers has been positive. In 2015 we recognised that this model could work across the early childhood sector and wrote a chapter for a book on mentoring in early childhood education that shared the findings of our initiative with the wider early childhood sector both in New Zealand and overseas (Penman & O'Connell-Sutherland, 2015).
References
Christ, T. & Wang, C. (2013) Exploring a community of practice model for
professional development to address challenges to classroom practices in early
education. Journal
of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 34:350-373.
Curtis, D., Lebo, D., Cividanes, W.C.M. & Carter, M. (2013) Reflecting in Communities of Practice. Redleaf Press, St Paul, MN.
Penman, R. & O-Connell-Sutherland, K. (2015) Fostering pedagogical leadership through peer mentoring groups. Mentoring in early childhood education: a compilation of thinking, pedagogy and practice. Eds. Murphy, C & Thornton, K. NZCER Press, Wellington, NZ.
Stewart, C. (2014) Transforming Professional Development to
Professional Learning. Journal
of Adult Education, 43:1, 28-33.
Wenger, E. (2000) Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization 7(2), 225-246.
Wenger, E. (2002) Cultivating communities of practice a quick start-up guide Image. Downloaded from http://www.slideshare.net/powerhouse1/start-up-guidepdf, 20/05/16.
