The Ethos of Cultural Production

Moral exploration of Media Users’ behavior

         Habermas (2001) explains that “sets of cultural artifacts may be conceptualized as material codes, as systems of basic cultural categories, or as media of tradition and of the evolution of technology.” Based on this assertion, any human production can be labeled as a cultural artifact, and extendin this affirmation, they can also be considered cultural products. From a mere ethical conception of artifacts and products, do laws recognize this anthropological “proclamation?” And what about memes? Are they digital artifacts then? Finally are media users we now labeled trolls ethically sensitive to people whose points of view divert from theirs? Let’s explore some possible answers to these question intending to be aligned with one’s ethos.

         A goblet found in a remote cave in Anatolia, Turkey is not only a anthropological artifact but a cultural production of a people who inhabited this area of Asia Minor. What about a video game, such as Assassin’s Creed developed by Ubisoft Montreal? Is it also a cultural artifact as well and a cultural production? Based on Habermas (2001), it is because it falls within “the evolution of technology.” Cultural products, based on Aiello and Cacia (2014), are “good and services that include the arts (performing arts, visual arts, architecture), heritage conservation (museums, galleries, libraries), the cultural industries (written media, broadcasting, film, recording), and festivals. UNESCO has declared that these products are not like other forms of merchandise.” Video games are cultural products and cultural artifacts linked to visual arts and film; this type of product is not like other types of merchandise we by at the supermarket at the corner.

But are governments and companies agreeing on these terms regarding cultural production and artifacts? Prof. Kerr (2012) pointed out the disparity in the degree of agreement between lawmakers and video games developers and publishers. For some of them “games constituted a cultural product” (Kerr, 2012), but for others, especially government representatives, they are not. Though, as explaing by Prof. Kerr (2012), “in the end the argument for games as cultural products won out in Europe, with strict limits, and without setting a precedent.” Video games are part of our culture today, and the ethos behind all this is clearly marked by making-money reasons than the popularization of an artifact that has tremendous impact in the lives of younger generations who find entertainment and consider it not like other forms of merchandise. The video game industry has to be set in clear terms for developers, publishers, and governments so they can act according to a common ethos.

Moving away from vido games, memes as cultural artifacts, which represent who we are at this point in history, present no problems with governments; they just abound on the Web or Internet-mediated communication. While many extol the presence of and fun behind memes, they forget the ethics behind the production of these visuals. While one walks around our cities, the presence of graffiti is everywhere. Some of them, like the memes today, are rather neutral and inoffensive; some other times they can be cruel and very unethical. As cultural artifacts (not as cultural production) memes and graffiti reveal lots about the current state of affairs in our countries and regions. “Nothing defines our use of the Internet as clearly as the concept of meme …” (Rintel, 2014); memes are the digital graffiti of the 21^st Century, which is not necessarily governed by some sort of ethical mindset.

How often do we get memes among our WhatsApp messages? The fact is, as Rintel (2014) puts out, “a meme may be created by an individual or an institution deliberately (many marketing companies now strive to create viral conent) or, as often as not, an accidental image, turn-of-phrase or concept will be exploited by a savvy netizen.” But how often do we find these “savvy netizens” exploiting them to harm others rather than simply make people laugh? For sure all of us have something to say about the presence or absence of ethos in the creation of these images that include intertextuality (reference to other memes or concepts known by a given audience), templatability (use of a recognizable structure with spaces for newer content) , and indexicality (usage in commenting on many a situation) (Rintel, 2014). Memes are fun, and this fact is undeniable. However, memes are not “barren;” produsers can use them in various unethical ways just for the sake of harming others.

Finally, are media users labeled as trolls ethically sensitive to people whose points of view divert from theirs? “Trouble at the Koolaid Point” (2014) is by far a cruel account as how trolls can make the life of a woman misarable just because she had her own ideas that may conflict with other people’s point of views. Extending the meaning of cultural artifacts, a troll is a by-product of our social media culture and behaviors. “Trolling is defined as creating discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people by posting inflammatory or off-topic messages in an online community” (Hanson, 2018). Trolling has no ethos; it is an unethical practice done just for the sake of causing disharmony among members of a group. Just because there are culture products, like a video game, and people comment on them, no individual is meant to disrespect another person because of his/her viewpoints. As stated in Trouble at the Koolaid Point (2014), “the most vocal trolling and ‘hate’ for a brand kicks in HARD once a critical mass of brand fans/users are thought to have ‘drunk the Koolaid’,” which probably means here a potion of stupidity. Coming back to the video game example, everyone has the right to think adversely when confronting other people’s opinions. But as stated above, there is no right to disrespect any social media user because of his/her way of thinking. Unfortunately, trolls do not comprehend this nor do they care but their own way of seeing things in social media.

Since the birth of social media and communities, many ethical questions continue to linger. In the exultation of the advent of the social media era that began in the 21^st Century, people danced and sang out of happiness for the interconnectedness it brought -in their eyes- to their lives. However, people forgot how others would see the consumption of social media content in various forms in the participatory world culture brought by the Internet. On one hand, how certain individuals “manipulate” the meaning of terms to profit from them is one ethical issue that needs to be dispelled (in the video game industry). On the other hand, memes need to contextualized as digital cultural artifacts that are close knit with the social media users’ produsage that also has to be governed by a true ethos that can help meme creators to act morally right respecting others. Memes can also come as a good example of slandering others in a trolling fashion. Finally, trolls are a byproduct of our social media society, and these inviduals will plunge you the deepest woe that people can imagine just because. These indomitable beings do not seem to be shied at the sight of their own cruelty and disrespect for others. They are like serpents who are coiled around communities waiting to seduce others and convert them into their henchmen.

References

Aiello, L., & Cacia, C. (2014). The Cultural Product: Integration and Relational Approach. Pennsylvania: Idea Group.

Habermas, T. (2001). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/00394-6

Hanson, J. (2018, April 10). Trolls and Their Impact on Social Media. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN: https://unlcms.unl.edu/engineering/james-hanson/trolls-and-their-impact-social-media#:~:text=Trolling%20is%20defined%20as%20creating,rise%20out%20of%20other%20users.

Kerr, A. (2012, February 10). The politics of cultural production. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from Culture Digitally: http://culturedigitally.org/2012/02/the-politics-of-cultural-production/

Rintel, S. (2014, January 13). Explainer: what are memes? Retrieved August 26, 2020, from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-memes-20789

Trouble at the Koolaid Point. (2014, October 7). Retrieved August 23, 2020, from Serious Pony: http://seriouspony.com/trouble-at-the-koolaid-point/

 

The Ethos of Cultural Production by Jonathan Acuña on Scribd

         How important is employee feedback? Well, it is especially important! All of us in a leadership position need to understand that “Employee feedback is any information exchanged by employees (formally or informally) regarding their performance, skills, or ability to work within a team” (Robinson, 2019). On the other hand, as stated by Lewin (2020), all our decisions are based on our emotions. But if one is not even-tempered when a feedback session is held with a team member, what can be bound to happen at any moment?

         Not being even-tempered during a employee feedback session can lead to undesired repercussions. A feedback session “represents a make-or-break situation. When done right, feedback can greatly improve engagement and productivity and boost team spirit” (Tšernov, 2020). If done while being emotionally-kidnapped by one’s anger, one will end up harming a team member rather than helping this person improve his/her work performance. If we understand employee feedback as “information given about a person’s actions at work, to be used as a guide for future improvement” (Croswell, n.d.), one’s social intelligence is the one thing that must prevail at all times, and one’s emotions must be subdued by our equanimity. If now subdued, it is better to reschedule the feedback meeting later on.

         Equanimity is just one component to bear in mind when one gets together with a team member for feedback. Cherry & Morin (2020), as well as Lewin (2020), mention the importance of the 5 componets of one’s emotional intelligence before an employee feedback meeting takes place. Lewin (2020) emphasizes the importance of comprehending the fact that one has to control one’s emotions to use them in one’s favor. For this reason during a work session with a team member one has to be self-aware of one’s emotional surroundings. This will allow to know one’s own mood and measure one’s emotional strengths and weaknesses (Gallaudet University, n.d.). Also, in this type of meetings, one has to be self-regulated to know how to handle upset feelings. Handling one’s emotions can help us calm oneself, control one’s impulses, stay positive, and be flexible when necessary. With all these, a leader is demonstrating his/her inter and intrapersonal skills to deal with personnel.

Continuing with Lewin’s (2020) ideas, one has to use social skills when meeting with people for employee feedback, too, to get along with peers and foster teamwork. One has to make and keep friends with one’s partners because this will help to solve problems and conflicts with others interacting professionally with them despite one’s anger (Gallaudet University, n.d.). One has to make use of empathy to be able to read and comprehend one’s peers’ feelings during feedback meetings. Being empathic can help in reading body language, taking another’s perspective, and helping others who find themselves hurt or sad (Gallaudet University, n.d.). And finally, one has to make use of motivation to set one’s own goals and work to achieve them along with the rest of the team. All this will help to continue to work despite frustration and to follow through and finish one’s tasks. And it also has to be utilized with peers to help them improve in areas where the team needs to catch up with the organization’s current challenges.

There is more to pay attention to when providing feedback to peers to avoid any sort of emotional kidnapping. As Lewin (2020) asserts, everything in an individual conveys messages, and this bears consequences. And for this reason, we need to find out what lies behind peers’ emotions. As explained by Lewin (2020), -see picture above-, there is more to be aware of when having an employee feedback session. Based on the illustration used by Lewin in her Escuela para Directores (which has been translated here into English), people can be compared to an iceberg; the only thing one gets to see are observable conducts. The hefty question then is, what underlies below the surface? Based on Lewin’s illustration, a whole unknown set of pieces of a person’s individuality and personality lies there, rather dormant and ready to wake up in any moment when getting feedback in a hostile environment where the leader can be emotionally-kidnapped by his/her own emotions.

“When we think about giving someone feedback, we often think of it in terms of positive and negative. However, there’s a new way to think about this distinction: reinforcing or redirecting” (Croswell, n.d.). In the absence of feedback, an employee may think that what s/he is doing is OK; the person will not explore alternative ways of doing things (Lewin, 2020). Employees react towards their leader; if they are not motivated, the reason may lie on the fact that there is no positive reaction to the team leader’s management (Lewin, 2020). Straigthening this relationship leader-team member aided by equanimity, social skills, and what lies behind one’s or/and one’s peer’s emotions is a must. Maintaining our emotions under control will avoid any kind of emotional kidnapping when talking to our peers about their performance and areas where one sees them improving to cope with the organization’s current needs.

As a final remark, “employee recognition plays a huge part of boosting performance and maintaining high levels of engagement” (Tšernov, 2020). If people are performing well, one has to tell them. There is no need to sugarcoat one’s compliments if someone in one’s team is doing something right. In a team every member should be able to determine what is the minimum standard one hastto achieve in one’s job, but as a leader one can also tell them what is desireable, too. A connection with the team members need to be established. For this reason it is important to let one’s peers know we are all on the same team. This is not about the leader vs. the team; this is about “you + them vs. [any] issue” (Robinson, 2019) that may arise and that needs to be fixed as a team. Under these work circumstances no such thing as emotional kidnapping will prevail in the office environment and feedback will flow smoothly at all times.

References

Cherry, K., & Morin, A. (2020, January 24). 5 Components of Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from VeryWellMind.Com: https://www.verywellmind.com/components-of-emotional-intelligence-2795438

Croswell, A. (n.d.). Employee Feedback Examples for Development and Evaluation. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from CultureAmpCom: https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/employee-feedback-examples/#:~:text=Employee%20feedback%20is%20information%20given,a%20guide%20for%20future%20improvement.&text=Here%2C%20we%20provide%20examples%20of,in%20mind%20when%20giving%20feedback.

Gallaudet University. (n.d.). 5 Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence Self-Awareness. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from Gallaudet.Edu: https://www3.gallaudet.edu/documents/clerc/41-FiveDimensions.doc

Lewin, L. (2020, August 18). Inteligencia Emocional & Personalidades Conflictivas. Escuela para Directivos. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Robinson, E. (2019, July 10). Why employee feedback is important + how to give and receive it. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from Hotjar.Com: https://www.hotjar.com/blog/employee-feedback/#:~:text=Employee%20feedback%20is%20any%20information,a%20stronger%2C%20more%20harmonious%20workplace.

Tšernov, K. (2020). Employee Feedback: Why It Matters and How to Use It. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from WeekDone.Com: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/10/02/how-the-halo-effect-impacts-your-workplace/#:~:text=The%20halo%20effect%20refers%20to,perceive%20almost%20everything%20they%20do.&text=It%20could%20be%20that%20the,before%20even%20meeting%20the%20individual.

Emotional Kidnapping - Employee Feedback by Jonathan Acuña on Scribd

Why do CoPs Fail?

Exploring reasons to CoP failure 

Communities of Practice (CoP) describe “a learning theory with a strong relationship to the social construction of knowledge” (Knowledge Management Tools, 2018). And a community of practice for educators needs to be a virtual ground for them to interact with one another, share ideas regarding best practices or sources of teaching materials, and to strengthen teamwork and social bonds needed in a school environment. However, organizations can find that their community is not advancing, and this sort of stagnation or lack of advancement can be attributed to a full gamut of reasons.

The lack of advancement in a community of practice can be traced back to not acknowledging the growth channels for a CoP. Eisenberg (2018) states that a CoP has a series of stages in its lifecycle: inception, establishment, maturity, and mitosis. In stage 1, inception, the CoP management wants to achieve “critical mass,” which here it is understood as a high volume of members who register in it. In the case of a school, it is basically to have everyone on board. In stage 2, establishment, the underlying idea behind the CoP management mastermind is to continue growing by adding more and more members, but it is at his phase that members’ activity is hosted, triggered, and monitored for the first time. In a school CoP, teachers are now discovering what the community offers them and perhaps what they can do for the community. In stage 3, maturity, “the objective is to reach the point where the community has reached its initial maximum potential” (Eisenberg, 2018). As put out by Knowledge Management Tools (2018), at this point we have a true “construction of knowledge” where members do participate. And finally, in stage 4, mitosis, “the objective is to sustain and increase the level of both activity and sense of community through facilitating multiple, smaller online communities” (Eisenberg, 2018). Simply stated, the institution, in the point in time, has created a series of interest groups where instructors find and share material and engage with their peers in the exchange of good teaching practices. However, if a CoP got stranded in any of these phases, it is failing and smothered by the lack of member engagement.

The lack of advancement in a community of practice can also be linked to the absence of community management. Though Vanessa Paech at an interview with The University of Sydney (2020) explains that there are three basic reasons for community management, two of them really apply to CoPs organic life. For Paech, community management should stick to “the purpose of giving members somewhere to come together and share stories” (The University of Sydney, 2020). In an education context, the CoP is the place we can provide instructors to share their expertise in the form of best practices, teaching anecdotes with a moral (or teaching), teacher-made materials, and the like. This virtual space gives the teacher “a social context of being an integrated part of [the] community” (Knowledge Management Tools, 2018). In the absence of a community manager, this may fail especially if the CoP did not advance to the establishment phase. The other idea shared by Paech (The University of Sydney, 2020) is that the community management helps align members “to get a movement or to get a cause going.” Achieving this movement or cause going may really be happening in the maturity phase. In the case of the school’s CoP, due to the lack of a leader in charge of the community management, new members will just perceive inactivity or lethargy and will not comprehend the real idea of being an active participant in this virtual space. If a CoP lacks someone in charge of its activity, it is failing and no members will pounce down upon the resources in its repositories of material or academic conversations.

The lack of advancement in a community of practice can also be linked to the absence of channels to make the community grow. There are various channels to reach members for a CoP, but “the challenge is to know when to use each channel to drive the growth you desire” (Eisenberg, 2018). The first and most reliable way of gaining new members for a community of learning is by direct growth. This “happens when you are appealing to an audience that you already have access to” (Eisenberg, 2018). In the school setting, the cohort of educators can be directly invited by mail or by other means the institution finds appropriate. A second channel to gain new members for the CoP is through word-of-mouth. When teaching staff members are already part of a CoP, they can start sharing content with peers and tell them where that content (and more) is available for them if they are active participants in the community. A third channel that could be related to an audience that is not exactly yet accessible to the institution is promotion. “There are a variety of different promotional channels that can be used to appeal to an external audience, for example, events and competitions, newsletters,” etc. (Eisenberg, 2018). On the contrary, if a CoP do not have promotion channels, it is then failing and teachers will find themselves sorely dissappointed with the so-called community of practice.

To sum up, if a CoP is failing to achieve the founders’ intention to build it, this can be connected to one of the reasons exposed above. This does not mean that there are no other reason for a CoP’s failure, but they need to be examined to rule them out. In the meantime, it is crucial for the health of a CoP to spot and acknowledge the growth channels a community undergoes from its foundation to its consolidation. Secondly, it is also fundamental for the heartiness of a CoP to ensure the presence of a community manager figure who can help align members to its purpose and reason for existing and get the community going and sharing. Additionally, it is imperative that channels to make the community grow are regularly examined and analyzed to enhance members activity and help the CoP reach the pinnacle of its success.

References

Eisenberg, R. (2018). Building Community - A Primer. Washington DC: World Bank Group.

Knowledge Management Tools. (2018). Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice. Retrieved August 19, 2020, from knowledge-Management-Tools.Net: http://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/communities-of-practice.html

The University of Sydney. (2020). Community Management, Interview. Retrieved August 19, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ethical-social-media/1/steps/824144

[9] Communities of Practice Failure by Jonathan Acuña on Scribd

Social Media’s Hidden Power Agents

What is going on around here?

         Hare (2016) defines metadata as “data that provide information about other data.” Metadata is all around social media, and they are being fed into gigantic data processors that “summarizes basic information about data, making finding & working with particular instances of data easier” (Hare, 2016). At this point we should all be asking ourselves what the hidden power agents in social media are. Do they provide us with greater access at the cost of surrendering our privacy?

         An innocent, naïve social media user can be beset by a prolonged series of misfortunes when privacy is surrendered. The University of Sydney (2020), while providing an 2015 sample experiment with ABC journalist Brett Ockenden, pointed out that “there was much debate on what metadata is, how it can be manipulated, and how it could be used against Australian citizens.” The debate makes us wonder what happens when our mobile phones get connected to the Internet. Well, as a soon as our smartphones are connected, our information is given away freely. Through a basic analysis of metadata generated by ourselves, anybody can get to know our workplace, place of residence, way of commuting, frequency of moving out, parents’ place of residence, flights taken recently, moments in which one was out of the country, and even the people one is used to calling. We can go revisit the same question again; who is listening to social media and for what purposed?

         Is the surrendering of our privacy and private details granting us greater access to social media? It looks like we are now pawns in a divine social media drama. As Jeremy Husinger (The University of Sydney, 2020) has pointed out, “governments are beginning to shift laws that are transforming once friendly driven internet practices into market-centered practices.” At least in Costa Rica, my country of residence, I often wonder if the shifts in laws to integrate citizens’ Internet practices are protecting people’s interests or companies’, especially when a Cybercrime occurs. In the end, as Hare (2016) puts out, “metadata is a shorthand representation of the data to which they refer.” If we have a good metadata reader, social media private information provided when a profile is created can lead the user to a netherworld of pain and suffering.

         As a result of not knowing what the gods of social media bestow on social media users, the hidden power agents are ethcially questionable. Jeremy Husinger, quoted by The University of Sydney (2020), says that “The way corporations acquire our consent to perform activities that we are like to not even know about, nor understand, is entirely questionable.” It seems to me that whoever these hidden power agents are, they are just hollow individual who obey, as vassals, to a master company that is probably profitting with users’ private data. I just wonder if this is what the forefathers of social media had in mind when all these media platforms were created to supposedly provide us with greater access to the information society we live on.

         As a simple conclusion, a shudder passes through me when I just come to think that hidden power agents can be using and manipulating my personal and sensitive data to fulfill vested interests. Any social media user who becomes aware of this manipulation process (where algorithms do their magic) can be appalled at his/her own unawareness of how the gods of social media platforms rule from on high. But this will only happen when the sudden realization of how they are herded by master minds takes place; the fact is that no such epiphany regarding spiteful activity in the media is common or present in social media users. And my final thought is that there is no right to sulk about one’s surrendered privacy if one carelessly and happily gives personal information to cunning and covetous hidden power agends and social media listeners.

References

Hare, J. (2016, August 25). What Is Metadata and Why Is It as Important as the Data Itself? Retrieved August 17, 2020, from OpenDataSoft.Com: https://www.opendatasoft.com/blog/2016/08/25/what-is-metadata-and-why-is-it-important-data

The University of Sydney. (2020). Social media's hidden power agents. Retrieved August 17, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ethical-social-media/1/steps/824143

 

[8] Social Media’s Hidden Power Agents by Jonathan Acuña on Scribd

Teacher Recruitment

What should all be looking for in new staff? 

         “Human capital is an asset consisting of the knowledge and skills held by a person that can be used by an organization to advance its goals” (Grimsley, 2014). However, to advance in a company’s goals hiring the right people is a valuable and substantial part of the process of personnel selection. But what should recruiters be really paying attention to when looking for the right individuals?

         [1] Recruit seekers should stick to a clearly defined job description to identify the precise candidate who can become passionate about the organization’s aims. As stated by Lewin (2020), a company’s best human capital are not its people, but the right individuals. Many people can apply for a job out of need, but not all of them are right candidates for a position. In the case of a education company, the teaching personnel has to be qualified for, enthusiastic about, and devoted to teaching, elements that must be part of the job description. For instance, this has to be done bearing in mind that a top student at a university is not necessarily the right applicant. And teaching training is not the solution to help teaching staff advance in their professional development when they are not aligned with the institution’s goals because they are hiried without being the right candidates for a position.

         [2] “The staffing function of human resource management searches, recruits and acquires employees with the human capital necessary for the organization’s needs” (Grimsley, 2014). But in the process of finding the right personnel for an orgainzation’s needs, such as a language school, a kind of a screening interview is a must. This interview can help reveal inter- and intrapersonal skills the company must look for in its employees. As Lewin (2020) puts out, details regarding the attidude of a candidate reveal important details of an indivifual. These details prior the interview can expose lots about the mental outlook of a potential worker and foresee attitudes towards institutional policies. Having a teaching candidate, e.g., write a presentation letter, as Lewin (2020) suggests, about specific questions and desireable behaviors at work is a way to help the recruiter have a clear perspective of a new teacher.

         [3] Kenton (2019) argues that “An organization is often said to only be as good as its people.” What do we then pay attention to during a job interview as a recruit seeker to continue finding good people? Lewin (2020) answers this question quite simply; we pay attention to everything! An in order to focus on everything, the job interview, e.g. for a language teacher, has to be organized with a set of highly professional questions that can yield the real attitudes of the candidate. The recruiter needs to delve into knowing what this person liked about his/her former job, what his/her areas of improvement are, about his working antecedents, why the person wanted to become an educator, the reasons why s/he studied at the university the person studied at, how s/he could be defined by his/her former students and employers, etc. (Lewin, 2020). All this input does help to find the right people for the right positions.

         [4] “Human capital is an intangible asset or quality on a company’s balance sheet” (Kenton, 2019). It is for this intangible reason that it is transcendental to know as much as we can about a candidate, especially in the areas of former job experience. In the education guild, the recruiting interviewer must have a potential hiree talk about a education project that had a great impact of other colleagues and that can continue to have a long-lasting effect on their former peers. Lewin (2020) also suggests having teaching candidates tell you how s/he copes with criticism. For this reason, it is a good idea to understand how a hiree responds to criticism by listening to him/her talk about a former supervisor. People can disagree with criticism, but how this individual reacts to the memories of feedback can reveal lots of what to expect of him/her.

         There are probably more areas that a recruiter has to focus on while interviewing a candidate. However, Lewin (2020) warns us to beware of the halo effect. “The halo effect refers to the idea that our overall impression of someone will directly impact how we perceive almost everything they do” (Miller, 2018). The halo effect is a sort of prejudice all talent seekers can fall into if the candidate is professionally charming. If that candidate at our institutuion “has an overall positive impression -a halo as it were- then we’re more likely to perceive everything they do more positively” (Miller, 2018) and whatever they say sounds like music to the recruiter’s ears. Falling in the halo effect trap can mean that the company’s recruiting official can suggest the wrong name for a teaching position.

References

Grimsley, S. (2014, May 7). What Is Human Capital? - Importance to An Organization. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from Study.Com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-human-capital-importance-to-an-organization.html

Kenton, W. (2019, May 28). Human Capital. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from Investopedia.Com: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp

Lewin, L. (2020, August 11). Selección de Personal. Escuela para Directivos. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Miller, B. (2018, October 2). How the Halo Effect Impacts Your Workplace. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from HRDailyAdvisor.blr.com: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/10/02/how-the-halo-effect-impacts-your-workplace/#:~:text=The%20halo%20effect%20refers%20to,perceive%20almost%20everything%20they%20do.&text=It%20could%20be%20that%20the,before%20even%20meeting%20the%20individual.

Teacher Recruitment by Jonathan Acuña on Scribd

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/

[7] Teachers as CoP Advocates by Jonathan Acuña on Scribd