APC.1 Professional Context of Practice

APC. 1 Professional Context of Practice

I work as a Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) and I first came across the work of Etienne Wenger when I was on the RTLB Association Executive. The nature of our work means that quality professional development is not always specific to our needs. The Community of Practice model was a pathway that enabled us to work collaboratively on shared kaupapa to grow our knowledge and improve our practice. The NZRTLB Association created a powerpoint for the members and as a Regional Representative my task was to bring this back to my region of 75 RTLB and share the model. Over the next years I  participated in a range of different COP’s related to my practice from a national Dyslexia group of colleagues who worked together to construct a Dyslexia kit for all RTLB, IYT practitioners and Numicon to name just a few. I have found the formation, growth and closure of every community to be quite different and the lifespan ranging from months to years.

As I reflect more closely on my professional practice, it becomes clear that at a micro level every student case that I work is a small community of practice including family, teacher, teacher aide, SENCO and sometimes a DP or Principal or Tutor teacher and also external specialists such as a speech language therapist, or occupational therapist, psychologist. My case work can include multi specialists and multi agencies and each situation becomes a working group of people joined for a single purpose to support and work to improve school life and learning for a student. Over the years I have valued the collaborative nature of my work. In the early 2000’s I recall being frustrated at the lack of authority in the role of an RTLB. I had no power to enact anything at any time. Some referential authority occasionally but overall it was only by authentic respect and valuing of all members of the collaborative group that the most effective interventions were co-constructed and implemented. I have learned that my lack of authority has been an advantage as teachers and parents recognise that my contributions are non-partisan and the priority is the needs of the student always. I have learned to listen more and seek out the sparkling moments in problem narratives (White, 1995).  I suspect that blogposts may become sparkling moments in the morass of study and yet at the moment I am inclined to agree with Hobb (2007) that “Creating a forced reflective practice assignment that evokes genuine and uninhibited response  … is nearly impossible.” (cited by Dawson 2012).

 Dawson, P. (2012) Reflective Practice. Retrieved from https://app.themindlab.com/media/23104

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Wenger, E. (2015, November 28). Communities of practice a brief introduction to CoP. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/11736/A%20brief%20introduction%20to%20CoP.pdf?sequence=%201: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/11736/A%20brief%20introduction%20to%20CoP.pdf?sequence=%201

White, M. (1995). Re-authoring Lives: Interviews and Essays. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.