Negotiating Academic Communities: Narratives of Life-long Learners (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Qualitative Report
School administrators rarely have the opportunity to confer and share their challenges with colleagues. To address this problem in 2005 the Educational Administration Department (EAD) at Central University (a Midwestern PhD granting institution located in a thriving city of about 100,00 people) created a virtual/local doctoral cohort for 14 school leaders living and working in two states. Three years into the course of study we conducted a year long inquiry that asked, "How did students' self-perceptions evolve within a cohort context, and how did these changes advance or retard professional learning community (PLC) growth?" Our interviews had a phenomenological focus but we used symbolic interactionism to analyze them and dramaturgy to present our findings. Themes of faculty and student relationships, work and/or personal problems and dealing with technology indicated that despite some significant hurdles students' identity evolutions moved the group toward becomi...
Education and New Developments 2022 – Volume I, 2022
Anchored in a qualitative approach, yet informed by the constructivist theoretical perspective, this paper addresses a research issue related to the transformative potential and biographical legacy and impact of community-engaged learning model (service-learning) on twelve students who participated in the Gender, Sexuality, Identities-From Oppression to Equality course. This course is the first such in Croatian universities that, integrating the community-engaged learning model, covered the thematic areas of human rights, gender equality, gender-based violence and gender theory. For students who participated in this research, all of it represents the first such educational experience-so far they have not been exposed to the mentioned contents, they have not participated in a course of such specific didactic and methodological features, they have never collaborated with civil society organisations, they have never written reflective diaries, nor were they previously engaged in tasks similar to those that awaited them in this course. This paper therefore intends to contribute to the current academic debate on the positive outcomes of community-engaged learning for students in the context of its transformative potential viewed from the perspective of contributing to changes in student biographies. In addition, the paper seeks to answer the (research) question of whether the narratives of students who participated in such a course for the first time are narratives of disappointment or empowerment, continuity or change, and whether they have developed a tendency to modify (their) habitus? The main identified dimensions of the students' experienced change are classified through new knowledge or competencies, educational and professional paths, intentions of further (civic) engagement and personal development. Drawing on Turner's concept of "liminality" (1969), Bourdieu's habitus (1977, 1984) and Mezirow's Theory of transformative learning (1981), students' participation in the course with full integration of community-engaged learning model is interpreted in this paper as a liminal phenomenon of the otherwise traditional (higher education) teaching and learning field, which led to the modification of students' habitus, while indicating their empowerment and propensity for further socially responsible and active contribution within their communities.
Engaging in Communities of Practice in Higher Education: A Personal Journey
International Journal of Advanced Research
Clarifying one"s own development as a teacher within educational institutions can be a complicated journey of self-discovery, but the good news is that this does not need to be a solitary pursuit. Within higher educational institutions, communities of practice have consistently formed to allow for the transition of novice instructors toward more enlightened ones. How this process occurs, how it is defined, and the implications of such practice are the focus of this paper. By examining these aspects, one can perhaps find a more solid footing upon which to continue upon the path of professional development within such institutions. The author will show his own journey of discovery via early graduate school events, culminating in a pathway toward yearly academic publishing requirements. The author ends with some helpful suggestions for improving one"s development in this area.
Voice and socialization in postsecondary students' narrative practices
University students are peripheral participants in various institutional communities, including the university itself as well as the professional communities for which they are preparing. As students are socialized to these communities, their processes of identity navigation become visible in their narrative practices. Using interview and classroom observational data, this paper examines undergraduate, law, and business students’ self-positioning relative to institutions and individuals in their academic and professional lives. We conclude that students envision types of successful members of imagined professional communities, and that their academic motivation and success depend on their positioning their future selves as tokens of that type.
Communities of Practice and Students' Professional Development
2009
The application of Communities of Practice (CofP) can potentially serve as an effective learning strategy for higher education classrooms by contributing to student professional development while fostering a desire for life-long learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to assess the effectiveness of this learning strategy and help educators understand how integrating CofP experience in the higher education classroom can help students become more engaged in lifelong learning. Students involved in CofP during two different graduate courses provided their reflections on this learning strategy through their papers and journals. Findings indicated that, despite the often individualistic nature and constrained graduate course environment, participants felt that the use of CofP was beneficial for enhancing relationship skills and acquiring knowledge about topics of interest quickly and effectively.
Chasms and bridges: Generativity in the space between educators' communities of practice
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2010
This article presents findings from an ethnographic study that explored how participation in an educator network contributed to the production of meaning, identity, and agency among the teachers and school district administrators involved. Prominent in this process were the differences between practice in the network, consisting of dialogue informed by theory, inquiry, and reflection on professional experience, and the practice of participants' workplace communities. I argue that identities afforded by multi-membership in these very different communities, along with the bridges participants worked to build between the communities, hold promise for generating change in the field of education.