Teachers as CoP Advocates

La Guerrilla de Eliseo Velásquez by Fernando Botero at Museo Botero, Bogotá, Colombia

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2017)

Teachers as CoP Advocates

How can we take teachers into using a Community of Practice? 

“The term ‘community of practice’ is of relatively recent coinage, even though the phenomenon it refers to is age-old” (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015). Communities of Practice (or CoP) have existed ever since people have come together to learn together and from one another. People get together because they feel the lure of sharing knowledge, and individuals who share can take note of the feeling brimming inside them when they realize epiphanic moments of self-discovery and new insights about their area of expertise being shared with peers. “The concept [of CoP] has turned out to provide a useful perspective on knowing and learning” (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015), but for this to happen teachers must become CoP advocates.

The first step towards taking teachers into becoming CoP advocates has to do with choosing the right channel. Before a CoP campaign begins, a CoP platform is selected, and as York (2018) advises, the CoP administrators need to “focus on the actual benefits that come with shared content.” For teachers working together in an institution or in a school district (or even beyond these boundaries), a CoP can be the way to share useful content grounded in their immediate teaching needs. Once a CoP platform is chosen, instructors need to be motivated to share their user-generated content (directly coming from them) in the community. This sharing can make teachers feel excited to see how their ideas are used by collegues or peers. And how they can interact with colleagues can also be another benefit. But this is futile if we do not learn what shared content is looked for by educators and what content works well for a CoP of language teachers.

“A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Team BE, 2011). However, this regular interaction needs to be governed by teacher-generated content goals. It is important to set clear-cut, specific teacher-generated contet goals before a CoP campaign starts. Admins must identify a teacher influencer who can trigger instructor engagement and direct partners towards the CoP. Nevertheless, if this is not done properly, it can have a backfiring effect; teachers will pick up their ideas and leave the community in the absence of engagement. It is for this other reason that we need to make instructors the institution’s CoP advocates.

A single idea shared by a teacher can have a great and lasting effect, so telling teachers what content you want for the institution’s CoP is critical. “Make it clear and specific what types of content you’re looking for” (York, 2018). At this point it is a good idea to invite renown teachers in the school to contribute to gain CoP presence in the minds of colleagues; these individual are our first CoP advocates. Yet, remember that it can take some time to have teacher-generated content to be shared through the institutional CoP. And if the CoP platform will be used by more than one group of teachers, say outsiders and institutional instructors, admins must define what audience has access to what within the CoP bearing in mind that for both groups an influencer is needed.

In CoP’s lore, administrators have to focus on the community aspect of it to take teachers into being CoP advocates. If “the best thing about user-generated content is it typically sparks engagement” (York, 2018), there must be clear emphasis on building a healthy sense of sharing of teacher-generated content (TGC) among CoP members. This focus on community has to motivate instructors to connect with colleagues and peers to add value and context to whatever is shared. And for those sharing star teachers, the administration has to give them public recognition because TGC contributors are the soul and reason of the CoP. None was to have teachers engaging in speedy journeys into the CoP platform and then vanish into the Web because there is no reason to engage; we want them to stay and create a strong and healthful community of practice, and in the lore of a Community of Practice, these teachers who get hooked by the community become the next generation of CoP advocates.

The health of the community of practice depends a lot on how teacher-generated content efforts is analyzed and measured. Administrators want all teachers to be active participants and generators of content to spark their peers’ interest and motivate their community engagement. For these reasons it is indispensable to measure the TGC strategy if the school wants it to work. Benchmarking is compulsory here; not understanding the impact of what admins want teachers to do can have dire repercussions in CoP activity and teacher presence. Admins also have to generate engagement reports to track teachers’ involvement within this social teaching network. Not knowing what is going on can prevent the organization from helping their educators get to the pinnacle of their teaching. The absence of analysis and measurement will prevent the birth of a new generation of CoP advocates who can sustain engagement through time.

To sum up. the CoP (Community of Practice) is a site that must turn into an organic being that can grow and become fruitful for its users. Not only do users become consumers of CoP content but producers of new content for the community. Engaged teachers in a CoP will use its content, modify it for his/her teaching purposes, add to it, add value to it, and put those ideas into a different teaching context that can be shared in the CoP. In terms of a social media platform for teachers, instructors become produsers, and who can develop a shared set of teaching knowledge.

References

Team BE. (2011, December 28). What is a community of practice? Retrieved August 15, 2020, from Wenger-Trayner.Com: https://wenger-trayner.com/resources/what-is-a-community-of-practice/

Wenger-Trayner, E., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015, April 15). A community of practice story. Retrieved August 15, 2020, from Wenger-Trayner.Com: https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

York, A. (2018, May 23). User Generated Content: 5 Steps to Turn Customers Into Advocates. Retrieved August 14, 2020, from SproutSocial.Com/: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/user-generated-content-guide/

 

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