Activity 2: Current issues in my professional context

Activity 2: Current issues in my professional context

The socioeconomic status of the community, 

Our school selects boys from good families who are experiencing financial or personal hardship, regardless of their race or ethnicity. They’re offered a life-changing scholarship, which includes free tuition, free boarding and free music and sports lessons (in fact, almost everything is funded by the Trust). 

As most of the boys come from families with financial and personal hardship, the characteristics of the community, is one of immense gratitude. Parents care deeply about giving their boy a great education and are therefore willing to give up their son to boarding from Sunday evening through until Friday afternoon. They count this as being given the opportunity of a lifetime, to have their son selected to attended a fully funded boarding school. They see it as a privilege and an opportunity, not only for their son to attend, but also an opportunity to better their situation, whether that be to work full time or study, or to assist them in better managing their life in some way.

Statistically, over half of our students come from Pacifica families, approximately another quarter from Maori families and the rest from European and Asian cultures. As the school is a based on the Anglican faith, the community must be open and accepting of the Christian faith, which has been passed on from the school’s founder.

The school strives to transform the lives of these boys on their journey to becoming good and useful young men in their communities. It is a holistic approach; based on care and respect, valuing academic achievement, learning to get on with others, and healthy life choices. 

The key to the success of the school is having a team of people made up of specialist staff dedicated to attend to the ‘all round needs’ of the boys. This team consists of boarding staff, kitchen staff, clothing staff, grounds staff, teaching staff, and a management team that has a vision for 21st Century learning.

Issues around the socioeconomic status of the community, the school culture and professional environments. 

As a private boarding school in Central Auckland, our point of difference is our socioeconomic status. Statistically, our academic results have been noteworthy and higher than schools of a similar socio-economic status. There are a number of factors that contribute to this. The students are offered many advantages that come with boarding and a significantly well funded scholarship (worth around $35000 per year). They have many opportunities to succeed, in academic, cultural, sporting and musical areas. All students are given free musical tuition for an instrument of their choice. Their diet ensures they eat regular healthy meals. Routines in the boarding house also ensure boys have plenty of sleep and opportunities for extra tuition and homework.

The school’s Trust Board, made up of eminent old boys and businessman, along with the management team ensure all boys leave the School with a good education and with dignity. 

‘As many have often said, it is not the fine buildings and the matchless facilities, which are most important, but rather what goes on within them. The school motto, Firmiter et fideliter, encapsulates the qualities so dear to the Founder: steadfastness, perseverance, loyalty and ambition. To the extent that its products exhibit any or all of these, Dilworth is no longer just a unique school; it is a great school. Thousands of miles from the Founder’s homeland the results of his life and the generosity of his spirit live on; a ‘heritage in trust’ for generations yet unborn. This is the legacy of Dilworth.’

https://dilworth.school.nz/document.doc?id=42

The school’s culture is based on tradition and pride in their community.  Dilworth boys are often credited for their manners, their dress and deportment, their sportsmanship and respect for others. 

My Practice within the Community

Critically define practice.

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner (2015)

Step 1. My community of practice are a group of colleagues at my school where I teach. We share a similar passion for continuous improvement in teaching and learning and are committed to growing the community we interact with daily. 

The group consists of our Head of Campus, whose responsibility to his staff is to provide the conditions for them to transform their students. In this regard he has promoted a culture of collaborative expertise with his staff, to ensure they interact regularly and aspire to become members that contribute to a learning organisation.  

At our core we have a strong relationship between key staff that has developed over the past two decades, yet we also have an attachment to colleagues who have more recently joined the staff and bring new and innovative ideas from previous schools.

Step 2. Our main mode of learning is to go from practice to theory, and then back and forth to obtain more specific insights about how to lead and participate in transformative change in our school. Over the past couple of years we have trialled one to one devices with the students. This was an initiative the Head of Campus, Trust Board, staff and parents collectively agreed to. The Trust Board provided the financial means for all boys (190) to have a digital device, a mixture of Ipads, Mac Book Airs and Mac Book Pros. Over the past two years teachers have trialled programmes to engage the students in digital learning. We have reflected on the best practice and incorporated theory, including having many discussions, inservice training sessions and sending two members on this Mindlab course. The driving force or “community of practice” for continued change, now comes from the Head of Campus, the Head of IT and three staff who have been involved in the Mindlab. This group meets twice a term as two of the members are on different campuses, however, there are often less formal, reflective conversations that occur on a daily basis on google documents and face to face with those on this campus. On a formal level, as leaders we spend a lot of time listening, learning and asking questions to evaluate what is working and not working with digital learning in our school.

Step 3. My contribution to the group is significant, as I have attended the Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital & Collaborative Learning) and spent time alongside many different like-minded, practitioners gleaning amazing ideas and insights from them. As a result, I have trialled a number of new digital initiatives to foster improvement in digital learning with my class. This has enabled me to lead innovations, facilitate change and actively contribute within this group both in theory and practice.

Fullan, M., & Scott, G. (2016). Practice change‐savvy leadership to guide your institution into the future. The Successful Registrar, 16(6), 9-9.

Wenger-Trayner, E., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015). Learning in a landscape of practice. Learning in landscapes of practice. Boundaries, identity, and knowledgeability in practice-based learning, 13-30.