Shifts in Professional Learning: Keeping Fully Alive with Communities of Practice

Focus

Shifts in Professional Learning: Keeping Fully Alive with Communities of Practice Kathreen Riel

H

ow do you financially support educators to participate in ongoing professional development during a pandemic? The ECE Professional Development Bursary Fund (bursary project) assisted 2,249 educators to participate in professional development until March 2020. After that time, the prospect of implementing the same application and distribution process did not seem like a realistic strategy especially given the restrictions of face-to-face gatherings and the unprecedented stressful circumstances educators faced to implement myriad new safety measures in their facilities. I recognized two realities. First, it had to be easier for educators to access and use bursary funds. Second, the funding needed to focus on those professional learning experiences that optimized the three objectives of the project: • To build capacity in the field by reducing the financial barriers for early childhood educators and child care providers in accessing highquality training opportunities.

• To improve access to training for Indigenous populations.

• To improve access to training for early childhood educators and child care providers living in rural and remote communities.

When I reviewed the feedback from bursary recipients who attended training events in 2019, I read compelling stories from those who participated in communities of practice. This interactive learn-

ing format provides educators with opportunities to meet together to discuss, explore, and challenge ideas and practices. These opportunities for reflective conversations are promoted in the Early Learning Framework as a way for educators “to think deeply about issues and moments from their practice, not to find final answers or ‘truths,’ but to generate richer, meaningful pedagogical understandings” (p. 101).

The feedback shared by bursary applicants showed that participation in communities of practice was having a significant effect on educators’ ability to explore their professional identity and practice: This community of practice has changed how I think ... and I really do mean exactly that...I am seeing, listening, evaluating and approaching everything in my life with a different mind set. What I learned cannot be unlearned ... my mind has been opened. Cool. ***** The very disruptive ideas that were presented to me have truly fundamentally changed me. I am finding myself thinking about the world, my place in it, my impact on others, and how that will have a ripple effect into generations into the future.

Given this feedback and the potential for communities of practice to

support the bursary project’s objectives for capacity building, the distribution of the remaining bursary funds was targeted to support more communities of practice, especially among Indigenous communities and in rural and remote areas of British Columbia.

Another challenge was to attract potential applicants to organize and lead a community of practice amidst the unpredictable circumstances of a pandemic. Underlying this challenge were heavier questions: • Just how crucial is professional learning when educators are facing bigger issues like—how to protect our lives from an unpredictable virus?

• When the health of our families and communities is at stake, is there still a need to consider deeper inquiries about practice?

• Is it possible that staying fully alive requires not just our very breath but also tending to our desires to connect, learn, and wonder?

• If these desires are still yearned for and perhaps even vital to our quality of life, could communities of practice nourish and keep alive these professional longings as well?

One of the potential barriers of leading a community of practice was the application process for bursary funds.

For the first six months, the bursary project followed a traditional application process and required an Continued on page 24

The Early Childhood Educator Winter 2021 21

What if we sustained a closer relationship with the bursary applicant and scheduled multiple meeting times to exchange ideas, questions, and reflections throughout the applicant’s community of practice experience rather than asking the applicant to provide a summative report without an opportunity to reflect with the funder?

What other ways could we minimize the administrative burden on applicants seeking to organize a community of practice?

To explore this potential new process I re-invited the mentors who had worked with the initial community of practice groups in the winter of 2020 to discuss these questions. Nicky Byres, Jacqueline Ewonus, Lisa Nicholson, and Jennifer Vanderberg enthusiastically embraced these questions and the new direction for co-constructing plans and collaboratively implementing communities of practice with applicants. Bolstered with their enthusiastic response I began promoting the availability of bursary funds. I contacted 29 Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (CCRR) in rural and remote regions of BC. Thirteen agencies responded, and I soon realized that the uptake to our invitation had benefited from capacity building efforts and events in the months leading up to our promotional campaign.

One catalyst for this uptake was the release of the Early Learning Framework in November 2019. This publication generated more interest for educators to participate in communities of practice to reflect on the probing questions and concepts found in the document. There were also early years leaders who laid the groundwork with educators in BC

to consider new approaches to professional learning. For instance, in November 2019 The Early Learning Institute took place in Nelson, BC. During this Institute, training coordinators and educators worked with Lorrie Baird to explore alternate understandings of professional purpose and practice.

Another capacity building catalyst was the Peer Mentoring Project, started in the summer of 2019. This project was led by Dr. Laura Doan and brought together experienced and new early childhood educators who met on a regular basis to professionally support one another. As a result of these capacity building events, by the time I asked CCRR training coordinators in June 2020 to consider implementing a community of practice, they had already been cultivating new ways of thinking and sharing professional understandings and they were eager to apply these new approaches through a community of practice model.

It was energizing yet uncomfortable to implement this co-constructing application process. While discussing the community of practice ideas and plans with bursary applicants, I sometimes felt tension to ensure that we supported creative approaches to communities of practice but also fulfilled the objectives of the bursary project. To ease my tension, I observed and followed the lead of the community of practice mentors who modelled sustained curiosity, insightfully reflecting the ideas shared and posing questions to connect the innovative ideas with concepts in the Early Learning Framework.

During one planning session, a passionate agency coordinator outlined an idea for a schedule of performances of puppets in a local public

park. The puppet shows and discussions with audience members were proposed to be the community of practice. I wanted to remain open to these initial ideas, but I also felt strong concerns and kept repeating to myself, “I don’t know how we can fund puppets in the park as professional development!” As a series of conversations and planning sessions occurred over time, I was amazed how the initial ideas evolved into the exploration of the Early Learning Framework Pathways—joy in relationships with people, places, materials, and ideas. The initial puppet show idea developed into a series of storytelling experiences in daycare centres. The puppet shows became a springboard for discussions and reflections to bring the educators and children together to not only talk about joy but actually experience joyful encounters through the sharing of stories. The educators then responded to critical reflection questions to deepen their thinking about the Early Learning Framework’s living inquiry, well-being, and belonging. They explored critical reflection questions such as, What brings me joy in my work? Can I create ways to extend and build on this joy?

This experience revealed to me that a co-construction application model supports creativity, risk-taking and learning by all those involved in the process. Co-constructing a community of practice can be uncomfortable, but plans can flourish in a sustained openness to thoughtful, intentional, collaboration. Most of all, maybe this co-construction process does keep us more fully alive with connection, curiosity, and wonder during these challenging times.

Kathreen Riel is the manager of the ECE Professional Development Bursary Program.

The Early Childhood Educator Winter 2021 25