Communities of Practice: Sursum Corda Service Organization & PLN

                                                 

While reading the "Communities of Practice" article by Etienne Wegner, I couldn't help but reflect on my undergraduate experience at Loyola Marymount University. While I was there, I was honored to be part of a service organization called Sursum Corda (See the coat of arms above). This organization serves on-campus at LMU and in the greater Los Angeles community at a variety of placements ranging from after-school tutoring programs to beach clean-ups to spending time with the elderly. All members are required to fulfill a required number of service hours, although most members seemed to go over the requirement. What made this organization distinct was that a part of each weekly meeting was dedication to "Reflection." Wegner discusses the importance of reflection within a community of practice: "A growing number of associations, professional and otherwise, are seeking ways to focus on learning through reflection on practice." Even though the members serve at a variety of placements, we all learned from each other during this special time in which we were able to hear a reflection from one of our own in regards to their service, and then further invited to reflect upon the service we had done.

The service component on our own, without the reflection piece in a community of passionate members with the common goal to serve, would not be as powerful. It is the reflection which invites us to think about our service and the relationships we developed with those we serve with and for, that truly create a change within us. It is the reflection component that invites us to learn about other types of services and social justice issues that are going on in our world today.Indeed, it is now that I see that what made this organization so special was not that we did service, or all jammed 50 plus members into a room every Monday night, but it was the fact that we created a community of practice. A community in which we wanted to reflect and learn from another, and continue to grow in our passion to serve.

The application of the community of practice in my PLN that I can most see, is the possibility of joining one of the official moderated education chats on Twitter. I have yet to participate in one, but my understanding is that there is usually a set topic and a variety of people can comment on it. I could imagine the plethora of knowledge, experience, and advise coming from a variety of professional educators with unique experiences in education. It sounds like a perfect space to learn, share, and reflect from one another; with people who share the passion for education.

As for an article challenging the theory of communities of practice, there is an abstract which identified a few elements as "short-falls" of communities of practice: "Perspectives of time constraints, organizational hierarchies, and regional culture are highlighted, and propositions bearing consideration when implementing a community of practice are stated" (Kerno). Even with the notion of the Twitter chats with a set topic has itself some time constraints. Although I heard the moderated chats usually consist of two different times to address the time constraints issue. Yet, if you are not available during the set times for whatever reason, then you are losing out. The concept of "regional culture" as being a challenge to communities of practice is an interesting one. The internet allows for me to easily get advise from say an educator on the East Coast, but perhaps I won't fully understand this because I am from the West Coast? I would further challenge this constraint, because I would hope that as educators we not only are equipped to teach our students about diversity and how to respect it and learn from people different than ourselves, but that we actually live this out.