Current Issues in My Professional Context

Socioeconomic data indicates a number of interesting factors that contribute to our school community. Using data from the 2013 Census and as a Decile 4 school, factors that stand out are that 24.8% of our community are one parent families, 46.4% of income earners over the age of 15 earn $20,000 or less per year resulting in a low household income and our school ethnic breakdown includes 46% of our students who identify as Maori. When considering the educational status of many in our community, which the American Psycholgical Association (2016) also highlight as contributing to socioeconomic status, we see that only 14.9% of our community aged 15 or over hold a Bachelors degree or higher.

As a school we are similar to some of those around us. Two of our contributing schools are Decile 4 also, while a third is Decile 9. The Decile 9 school was allowed to recapitate in recent years to also have Year 7 & 8 students. This had a small impact on our numbers of students entering at this level. However, in recent years, we have seen a growing number of Year 9s choosing our College over two others in the wider region that were previously their schools of choice. I believe that this is a reflection of the positive gains we have made through changing our school culture to better meet the needs of our students and wider community as well as raising student achievement through these changes.

So where does our school culture fit in? According to Wilson (2013), a school culture has three key facets; a vision, unity and empowerment. For myself, I believe our school vision encompasses all three of these factors and these contribute fully to developing our school cuture. We are striving for a school where all students feel valued, safe and secure, while also wanting them to have the skills required for the future. Our mission statement supports this where we say we want to develop young people who strive always to be the best they can be. We manifest our culture through a combination of our school values - Respect, OC Pride, Active Learner and Responsibility, our school motto - ‘Kia Kaha’, our use of Te Kawa o Te Ako which acknowledges our connection with our local iwi and of course the way we demonstrate these through our everyday teaching, learning and actions. Our culture does not start and end in the classroom, it carries over in to our wider school and local community when our students and staff represent the college at sporting and academic endeavours or just in day to day life. A recent ERO report highlighted the welcoming feel our school has and how students actions and in class learning reflect our values and vision on a daily basis. Recently, when showing a prospective family with three children around our school, they commented on how welcoming and positive their experience had been. The children also commented on how different it felt to their current schools and how they could see the positive interactions between both staff and students.

The professional environment within my school also plays a key part in developing, and maintaining our school culture. When we consider the norms of improving schools as cited in Stoll (1998), I think these are reflected within and by staff and students. For the professional environment, the way in which the staff work together in a collegial manner is vital as a way of moving our school forward. While the fourth level of collegiality as identified by Stoll (2008) where joint work is highlighted has not always been present, in the last few years this is something that we have developed. Changes in leadership and the way in which decisions are made has had a major impact on our professional environment. Staff are now willing to work together to move the school and themselves forward in a professional manner. People are having the ‘hard conversations’ which would previously have been very difficult to have and know that it is not about an individual person, but actually to help us become better teachers. We are becoming more open in our practice in order to acknowledge and identify thing we need to change but also to celebrate the things that are going well.

When considering the socioeconomic status of our community, it helps us to better understand many of the issues our young people and their families face, when they come through our front gates as well as helping to identify areas in which we want to help facilitate change in order to help not only our students but the wider community. Gargiulo (pg 7, 2014), identified a number of strategies, many of which we have also introduced within our school, which have contributed to and had a positive impact on our school culture. For example, we are a Positive Behaviour for Learning School. In conjunction with restorative practice, our students and staff are fully involved in putting things right when they are not going so well. We have introduced Pre-Trade and UCOL courses which operate in conjunction with local businesses and Tertiary providers, meeting a gap that previously exisited for some of our students. We have food available for students who come to school hungry and staff are always available for supporting students in need. By introducing these programmes and developing our school culture to be a nurturing one, we are breaking down many of the barriers that the socioeconomic status of our community creates in order for genuine learning to occur.

References 

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

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture

TEdEd.(2013, Jun 21). Building a culture of success- Mark Wilson.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8

Statistics New Zealand (2016) 2013 Quick Stats About a Place - Otaki. Retrieved from

http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstats-about-a-place.aspx?request_value=14334&parent_id=14325&tabname=#

My Community of Practice

Cambridge, Kaplan and Suter (2005) define a Community of Practice as “a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfil both individual and group goals”. When thinking about my own Communities of Practice, I can identify a number that I belong to. From leading a Curriculum area and managing staff to studying via Mindlab and interacting and participating with an online Community of Practice, I can see how so many of these communities can overlap and at times become blurred. While they do not all share the same members, the purpose and shared domain of interest are predominantly the same. They are all focussed on upskilling teachers or leading teaching and learning for both staff and students with the core aim of making sure that the teaching and learning that is occurring within our schools is based on research evidence with the idea that best practice will occur.

When considering a specific Community of Practice, one I have thought a lot about is our College Change Team. To me, this community follows the Community of practice as outlined by Cambridge et al (2005) and also that of Wenger (2000) who believes an effective Community of Practice has three key elements associated with it, that is a shared domain or area of interest, members are mutually engaged with each other and that thirdly, there is a shared repertoire of outcomes.

Thinking about the Change Team, the shared purpose or domain of this team is to Implement change in to the college in a managed and structured way that supports both staff and students. It has been a critical part of spreading leadership and responsibility throughout our school, by moving some decision making away from the Senior Leadership Team and spreading it to the teaching and middle management staff. The Change Team is future focussed and looks to where we want to head to with teaching and learning. It is a team in which we can explore new ways of practice, without jumping in boots and all at a whole school level. By doing this, we can often avoid some of the pitfalls associated with whole school initiatives, and a way in which we can get staff buy in by using early adopters and followers to lead the way for others.  We are given the opportunity to trial and lead initiatives in order to further research and gather the evidence we need to ensure that it is the right thing to do. This fits well with my own teaching practice and desire to implement best practice within not only my own teaching but also the teaching of others. I am constantly evaluating my own teaching practice in order to best meet the needs of my students and the Change Team is one mechanism that I can use to do this.

The Change Team meet on a semi-regular basis, depending on what the current focus is. Constant email discussions happen if face to face can’t occur, and initiatives are identified through a variety of methods. We will often use Student Achievement data, pastoral data and other evidence to identify areas in which we feel we need to look at. Sub groups are formed within the team based on areas of teacher passion or interest. Current initiatives include looking at which model of Genius Hour or Inquiry Based Learning will best meet the needs of our students in order to develop 21st century skills and qualities that we know our students need to have. In conjunction with this, what timetable structure will best support what we hope to achieve? We have also led the way in the introduction of Digital Technologies and our students going 1:1 with Chromebooks. Through running four trial classes prior to full implementation, teachers were able to develop and model ways in which these tools could be implemented within classroom programmes of learning. The Change Team provided the opportunity for staff to up skill by attending GAFE Conferences and also enabling visits to schools such as those in the Manaiakalani cluster.

For me, I feel connected to this community in a number of ways. Through a shared common interest, I am able to have a number of professional discussions with my colleagues which assist me in developing a greater understanding of where we want our College to be and how I can support the school in getting us there. I can reflect on my own practice to ensure that it fits with our College values. We can critically reflect on what we are currently doing, where we want to be and how we can change things to get there. I have been fortunate to have been involved since the Change Team’s creation as part of a Ministry of Education initiative, and its subsequent iterations. I can lead but also follow. The ability to opt in and out based on areas of personal and professional interest means that I can develop my passions. I have the ability to be Leader, Facilitator and active member depending on the context. One of the benefits of the Change Team is that different people can take on the Leadership or facilitator role depending on the current focus. Everyone within the community plays their part, which is another reason I believe it has been so successful. Teachers from different Curriculum Areas are working together to develop programmes of learning for all of our students. I contribute fully to this Community of Practice.Currently, my Mindlab study has allowed for two communities to combine for me due to a current Change Team focus on collaborative and inquiry based learning as well as Digital Technologies. As a result I am doing some of the ground breaking work in terms of research and planning for the introduction of Inquiry Based Learning to OC.

Overall, I love that Communities of Practice enable us to work alongside others in a range of professional contexts. The rapid development of Digital Technologies has meant that connecting with others has become easier and as a result, these communities have grown. I am in a profession I am passionate about and can connect with others who feel the same through these communities.

References

Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S. & Suter, V. (2005). Community of practice design guide: A Step-by-Step Guide for Designing & Cultivating. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NLI0531.pd...

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems.Organization,7(2), 225-246 (Available in Unitec Library).