The Organisational Culture that Underpins my Practice

Wilson defines the school culture "as the beliefs and priorities that drive thoughts and actions of people at school". He states that "the principal is the keeper of the thoughts and beliefs and says what they are and shows what they are.... Eventually you hear the echoes in the hall and see people carrying out the thoughts and actions and then you know you have built a culture". (Wilson, 2013, June 21).

I am lucky enough to work in an environment where the principal sets the tone for the values and how people treat each other. In the words of Dunkenblau, "she steers the ship and we all get on board." (Academy for SeLinSchools, 2015, April 28). The principal and the teachers make a conscious effort to create a positive environment where everyone is valued. Using Hargreaves typology of schools, I would classify the culture at my school as a collaborative culture (as cited in Stoll, 1998, p.10). Ways in which I contribute to fostering a positive professional environment in my community of practice include: sharing resources, plans and ideas through OneNote; regularly observing and giving feedback to my peers; leading "techy time" once a week so that my colleagues and I can share new digital and collaborative ideas; celebrating our successes and also taking responsibility for our continual improvement.

The Current Issues in my Community of Practice
One of the challenges for our school is to maintain our collaborative culture as we continue to grow. We are currently advertising for a 6th teacher and we are talking about moving to 2 syndicates, so the challenge will be to not let our culture slip to one Hargreaves identified as Balkanisation, where smaller pockets of collaboration grow and we lose the overall collaboration (as cited by Stoll, 1998, p.10). Our community of practice will address this by continuing to recognise, as stated by Trusheim, that "a positive culture does not just happen but has to be worked at and that the teachers and staff are a consistent entity and can build the culture, whereas the students pass through." (Academy for SeLinSchools, 2015, April 28). It is important that we embrace new members of staff, support them and understand that they are unique and will bring different skill sets and ideas which the whole community can benefit from and move forward together.

Another issue in my community of practise is that part of who we our is based around the small rural community in which we are situated. Some of the students who attend the school are third generation farmers from the district and some of the families can be quite traditional in their thinking and a little resistant to change. Whilst the history of our local area and strong community connections are important, our school community is changing. We now welcome students and their whānau from Ashburton town, from Hākatere, a small river mouth settlement, and from the Filipino and Fiji communites. The way that my community of practice will continue to address this challenge is to make everyone of our students feel valued and to have connections with all our families and their culture and values, taking every opportunity to make sure that the identity of all our community is reflected in our school culture.



References

Academy for SeLinSchools (2015, Apr. 28) What is school culture and climate? [Video]. Retrieved      from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_NvhlcusQ

Stoll, L., 1998. School Culture. School Improvement Network's Bulletin, No. 9, Autumn 

Institute of Education, University of London

Wilson, M., 2013. TEdEd (2013, Jun. 21). Building a culture of success- Mark Wilson. [Video].

 Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8

 I am currently attending a course at The Mind Lab (Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice - Digital And Collaborative Learning). I am thoroughly enjoying my new learning, it is definitely taking me outside of my comfort zone and helping me redefine and enhance my practice.
 
Week 25 My Community of Practice
 As defined by Wenger, Mcdermott and Snyder, (2002, p.3) "Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis."  My community of practice relates to the teachers in my school, the whānau of our students, our Board of Trustees and the wider Mid Canterbury primary teachers and online communities for example the primary school facebook page, VLNs and the Mindlab Google+ community. "Communities of practice is essential to our learning. It is the very core of what makes us human beings capable of learning...By participating in these communities, we define with each other what constitutes competence in a given context" (Wenger, 2002, p. 229).

The purpose and function of my practise and how I contribute to the community of practice
In line with the vision statement  in the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) which states that students will be "confident, connected, actively involved and life long learners", the purpose of my practice is to facilitate my students in their learning journey, to foster their love of learning, encourage them to be lifelong intrinsic learners, set realistic goals and scaffold them to achieve them.  The function of my practice is to equip the students with the skills they require to be 21st century learners. The purpose and function of my practice are guided by Vygotsky and his theory of Social Constructivism. I see myself as a facilitator empowering the students to be accountable for their own learning.
I contribute to my communities in the following ways:

• actively follow up with parents any pastoral care matters regarding my students.
• termly peer reviews on a particular area of practice that they are focussing on 
• being responsible for the social, academic, and emotional well being of all the students at our school. We start our weekly staff meetings with a discussion around any students we are concerned about and all take ownership of them
• lead school and Mid Canterbury schools cluster PD sessions in new learning that I have been involved with
• produce and share resources
• organise school events both academic, community and social
• read online forums and reflect on relevance to my practice and whether ideas can be incorporated 

The core values that underpin my profession and how I practice with regard to these values.

My school's mission statement "Growing the Future" and the 4 core values, that underpin our school curriculum and expectations for our students, are also the values that I embrace in my practice.

• Respect- respect is modelled, encouraged and explored. We all are expected to show respect to ourselves, to others and to human rights. 
• Responsibility- The students and I take on school responsibilities and perform them to the best of our abilities.
• Resilience - I model resilience to my students by taking on new challenges, talking about them with my students and expecting them to have a positive mindset and persevere, not giving up when things get tough.
• Excellence - I encourage the students to be accountable for their own learning, reflecting on what they are learning , where to next and how they are going to get there.

References

The New Zealand Curriculum - online. (2007, September 14). Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems.Organization, 7(2), 225-246.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business Press.