Leadership Challenge #5

Module 9 Ldc reflection on provocative question #5

Provocative Question (LdC)

As related to your job, how is change initiated in your organization? Do CoP's matter in the process of initiating change? ...of operationalizing change efforts? ...of institutionalizing change?

Change is initiated two ways in my organization. First there are changes that we are told about from our administration. This includes our dean, associate deans, and departmental managers. These are often given without any discussion or option for negotiations. We are currently going through major reorganization within our school. Some people will be staying with our school, others will be moved to another college, and one, me, will be moved to a different department. It is unclear how the changes will be implemented or when; however, we were told it will be happening. This lack of communication and input has made many of us feel powerless and not engaged.

The other way that change may be initiated is on a small scale from the faculty themselves. This normally occurs on an individual level. We may see a need within our classrooms and then we talk to our immediate supervisors for approval to make a change. Occasionally, these changes may be discussed at our school meetings for either input or sharing the knowledge. There is a lot more flexibility and freedom in the development and initiation of these types of changes.

Reflect on Module 9 LdC Step 1 – Prepare for an online conversation

Copy and paste the matrix of quotes/ideas that you developed for the Module 7 LdC and upon which you implemented your Leadership Challenge (LdC).

Quote/ideas from the book; applications/instances from your workplace setting (from last week)	Page number
The fields of identification and negotiability are not necessarily congruent. In organizations, many people below where they have little say and many have a say where they do not belong. Yet the two fields are related. The field of negotiability will affect how communities of practice direct their allegiance. It will affect how their members perceive the scope of their influence and the purview of their contributions…Most of all the field of negotiability will affect what they care about because they can have an effect on it.	page 248
Often change comes from the administration. They are given without any discussion or option for negotiations. We are currently going through major reorganization within our school. This lack of communication and input has made many of us feel powerless and not engaged.	Workplace
I formed the Public Health Student Association as I saw a need for the public health students have a community within our school/college. This change was supported with my boss and she literally told me to run with it.	Workplace
Once something has become negotiable, it expands our identities because it enters the realm of what we can do something about.	page 248
...a joint enterprise does not mean agreement in any simple sense. In fact, in some communities, disagreement can be viewed as a productive part of the enterprise. The enterprise is joint not in that everybody believes the same thing or agrees with everything, but in that it is communally negotiated.	page 78
The repertoire of a practice combines two characteristics that allow it to become a resource of the negotiation of meaning: 1) it reflects a history of mutual engagement 2) it remains inherently ambiguous.	page 83
I have insisted that shared practice does not itself imply harmony or collaboration.	page 85
Through mutual engagement, participation and reification can be seamlessly interwoven. A joint enterprise can create relations of mutual accountability without ever being reified, discussed, or stated as an enterprise.	page 84

Reflect on Module 9 LdC Step 2 – hold an online conversation

Copy and paste your notes from your on-line conversation from Module 7 LdC and upon which you implemented your Leadership Challenge (LdC).

It is our group's turn for the fishbowl. 

My quote: Page 248 – The fields of identification and negotiability are not necessarily congruent. In organizations, many people below where they have little say and many have a say where they do not belong. Yet the two fields are related. The field of negotiability will affect how communities of practice direct their allegiance. It will affect how their members perceive the scope of their influence and the purview of their contributions…Most of all the field of negotiability will affect what they care about because they can have an effect on it.

Deborah's quote page 94 - Constant change is so much a part of day-to-day engagement in practices that it largely goes unnoticed...There is a stake in continuity - at the level of the institution, and at the level of the community of practice as well.

Eric's quote page 214 - ...A well-functioning CoP is a good context to explore radically new insights without becoming fools or stuck in some dead end... when these conditions are in place, CoP are a privileged locus for the creation of knowledge.

Rachel's quote pages 73-74 - being included in what matters is a requirement for being engaged in a COP, engagement is what defines belonging.

Jose's quote page 209 - A community of practice is at once both a community and an economy of meaning. The definition of a joint enterprise bring the community together through the collective development of a shared practice.

Reflect on Module 9 LDC Step 3 – determine your leadership challenge

What behavior did you experiment with/try out for your leadership challenge last week?
(Write one sentence.) 

I would like to carry on with my previous leadership challenge and reach out to my group I created last time, trying to establish ideas of socially shared regulation (define a vision and mission).  

What did you end up doing for your leadership challenge last week?
(Write one sentence.)

I have proposed to my group (CoP) that we form some goals about the purpose of our virtual conversations and informal meetings. 

Reflect on Module 9 ldc Step 4 – assess and reflect on your leadership challenge

How did your change in behavior affect others in your Community of Practice? Tell the story of what happened.  
(Be brief.  Write 2-4 sentences.)

I tried to engage and start conversations within my Community of Practice. I found that there was a delay of reaction from the others in the community. One person is not engaging at all.

Reflect on your experience with the Leadership Challenge for this module. 
(Be verbose.  Write 2-3 paragraphs.)

I found that by me initiating the conversations, it was more exhausting for me compared to others. I put quite a bit more effort in comparison. This actually made me a bit disillusioned and discouraged. I felt like I was the only one invested. I do not feel like there is a socially shared responsibility, but rather my responsibility. I do not feel like we have a shared identity. I know that these things take time to develop and I am hopeful that with continued conversations, we can develop a sense of connection.

This was not exactly a huge change for me. I find that I tend to take the lead on things more often than not in an effort to build and keep momentum. Again, I am hopeful that this is something that I can step back on and allow for others to take more of the lead.

Based on your own quotes/ideas from Wenger, your workplace experiences, and new insights you developed as you reflected on your peers’ work, what behavior do you want to experiment with/try out for your leadership challenge in the next few days?
(Write one sentence.)

I am thinking that I want to give out "assignments" as a challenge to my CoP.

Leadership Challenge #4

LdC Template

Module 1 ldc Steps 1, 2 and 3 on provocative question #1

Provocative Question #1 (LdC)

How can your behaviors shape your action research study to be a collaborative action research study?

Collaborative action research is the process in which participants systematically examine their own educational practice for the purpose of increasing learning of students, teachers, or others. As with most things, I see the link with action research as the need to be an active participant in the process. So relying on those participants, including the students, to be collaborators on the research with the purpose of improving the situation (in my context, increase retention by increasing self-efficacy and self-regulation) is vital in understanding the problem and possible solutions. Multiple perspectives help with attacking the problem at hand. I also see it as a way to engage others (and myself) in the process. This buy-in in important for creating sense of ownership and commitment. My own self-regulation of learning will shape my study as I reflect on how I have approach my own academic success and how I may sympathize with my students.

 

Step 1. Prepare for an on-line Conversation

 

Quote/ideas from the book; applications/instances from your workplace setting	Page number
...a joint enterprise does not mean agreement in any simple sense. In fact, in some communities, disagreement can be viewed as a productive part of the enterprise. The enterprise is joint not in that everybody believes the same thing or agrees with everything, but in that it is communally negotiated.	page 78
The repertoire of a community of practice includes routines words, tools, ways of doing things, stories, gestures, symbols, genres, actions or concepts that the community has produced or adopted in the course of its existence, which has become part of its practice.	page 83
Accountability to the enterprise...the ability to understand the enterprise of a community of practice deeply enough to take some responsibility for it and contribute to its pursuit and to its ongoing negotiation by the community.	page 137
Negotiability of a repertoire ... As an identity, this translates into a personal set of events, references, memories, and experiences that create individual relations of negotiability with respect to the repertoire of practice.	page 153
This past week, there are more talks about the direction of public health department. It seems that there is a lack of collaboration as there are two distinct groups. The current director and the new interim director. There is a lack of communication.	Workplace
On Friday, there was the fall conference for the AZPHA. As a member of the board, I was one of the people helping to put on the event. It was definitely a group effort with various levels of motivation and identities.	Workplace
Shared histories of engagement can become resources for negotiating meaning without the constant need to "compare notes".	page 84
Mutual engagement does not entail homogeneity, but it does create relationships among people.	page 76

 

 

Step 2. Hold an on-line Conversation

After participating/viewing the “fishbowl” conversation record notes here (below) about your responses to your peers or new thoughts based on their postings.  Be certain your notes here are comprehensive, as were your responses to peers. (If you participate as a “fish,” in the fishbowl your notes, which should be entered below, can be much more succinct.) (This space expands to accommodate your writing.)

page 268 - paragraph 2 - the ability to apply learning flexibility ... deepening negotiating of learning, lived situations, generality is a problem more about identity - carries experience from context to context. Be flexible with behaviors like growth mindset (what does it mean in their classrooms), it will differ for each teacher, need to collaborate, how to develop it in the students, focus on modeling

page 74 - being included in what matters is requirement for being engaged in community of practice, define as membership, inclusion brings engagement then engagement brings belonging. Need to engage people at all different levels for belonging. Connection to Switch from last semester and leadership, shows people are receptive to developing new identity, creating sense of belonging and collaboration, seeing the barriers in IRBs...don't make assumptions

page 227 - encourage group learning, collaboration is central to that, seeing it at the heart, learning is fundamentally experimental and social, our own experience is necessary. groups can form more boundary experiences with others, but bringing people together can foster positive learning environments

page 214 - a well function CoP explores new radical insights, history of mutual engagement around joint enterprise is ideal for learning edge learning, bond and respect. PoP will take a large amount of collaboration, filling capacity for education in offenders, best strategy is through education, need a team approach, multidisciplinary approach

page 271 - unlike in a classroom, participants contribute in independent ways, material for identity, enterprise of the community, engagement. Common theme to connect each other. need to connect the individual experience in the context of the group and community of practice

 

Step 3. Determine your Leadership Challenge

Based on your own quotes/ideas from Wenger, your workplace experiences, and new insights you developed as you reflected on your peers’ work, what behavior do you want to experiment with/try out for your leadership challenge in the next few days? (Write one sentence.)

I would like to carry on with my previous leadership challenge and reach out to my group I created last time, trying to establish ideas of socially shared regulation (define a vision and mission). 

Step 4. Implement and Reflect

I have proposed to my group (CoP) that we form some goals about the purpose of our virtual conversations and informal meetings. We decided that we merge it with our involvement in the Arizona Public Health Association. That is, we would evaluate how to increase student engagement in public health and in the association. Then figure out the best way to meet their needs through professional training opportunities and other networking events. These will come from discussions that we have with member students, as well as our own personal experiences with teaching.