Reflective Practice
Considering Community and Contemplating Learning
by Ted Domers
Last August, I was explaining one of our inquiry communities, Struggles & Strategies, to someone. I explained that we are a community of teachers who come together to support one another and to create a space so each person can learn about his/her practice. The person responded with a simple question: How do you know people are learning?
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I knew we were successful in building community and that people felt good about coming. But, what did learning look like in our group?
I, therefore, decided to spend the year writing and thinking about this in our S&S meetings. Much of my exploration was catalyzed by Sonia Nieto’s What Keeps Teachers Going?, which served as our group’s central text, and further informed by our group discussions. It forced me to to revisit my beliefs about community and to evaluate what I deem to be a learning experience.
It forced me to to revisit my beliefs
about community and to evaluate
what I deem to be a learning experience.
My exploration began in September with Nieto’s description that teaching is “an encountering with the self” (p. 27). As I took this line for a walk, I wrote, “If we do not understand ourselves – and we are not actively reflecting to better understand our always changing self, then how can we teach our students? If teachers do not actively see themselves in their work – content and pedagogy – they, too, will not learn.” In this moment, learning occurs through introspection and through my individual cognitive growth. My learning in S&S occurred through an opportunity to see myself in a new light. Learning is a deeply personal experience, and, as Freire discusses, as a teacher, I am also always in a state of learning.
Nevertheless, I do not think this learning would have occurred without a supportive and trusting community to allow me to do this. In my October journal entry, I commented on Nieto’s statement, “without a feeling of belonging, learning can suffer” (p. 42). As such, learning cannot be viewed as a solely individual activity. Without a connection to a community of other learners, I would not be able to grow as a learner. S&S provides me a feeling of acceptance, and through our collective work, I have grown.
As my inquiry progressed through the year, I also identified a tension around a feeling that learning was occurring, yet I experienced difficulty in identifying concrete examples of this learning in our sessions. These moments forced me to analyze my expectations for our group and my conception of learning. On several occasions, my reflection revolved around the idea: can learning happen if nothing new is gained; can it merely be a reminder or a reinforcement of something we already know? And, if so, does that qualify as a meaningful experience? While I still do not have developed answers to these questions, I am left thinking about the cyclical nature of learning. Learning, I believe, does not occur in a linear or hierarchical model. It is an iterative, active, and constant process that recycles upon itself. Through this perspective, every learning experience is not going to be tangible, and my expectation and conception of learning needs to reflect this.
In addition, my expectations of learning were further informed by a reminder that learning can look different for different people, and we must be open to multiple perspectives. Nieto frames “teaching as an intellectual act” and in this chapter she reminds her readers to embrace the questions that arise, not stifle them (p. 77). A supposition of learning that I often fall into is that learning is evident through an answer; rather, I must remind myself (as I used to inform my students) that an intriguing question can be greater evidence of learning than any answer. In S&S, we constantly renew our learning through inquiring into our practice our practice and not seeking answers. We learn together because we come together, and this is evident in the questions we ask, not the solutions we explore.
We learn together because we come together,
and this is evident in the questions we ask,
not the solutions we explore.
Finally, as my learning cycled back to the beginning, in one of our final meetings, I was reminded of the importance of every individual. As I wrote in response to Nieto’s chapter “Teaching as Shaping Future,” I wrote that I must “learn from students in ways that I need them as individuals.” After all, learning takes place on a personal level, and these personal connections are at the core of our learning. Every child has something to offer a community, and as a learner, I must grow with each individual. Through emphasizing strengths and findingeach person’s role we are all learning together. The protocols we utilize at S&S allow for every voice, and with this democratic and open space, we learn because we all bring our individual contributions to share with one another.
Ultimately, this work takes me back to Emily Style’s image of learning as a window and mirror. Through our work together, we provide windows into other’s classrooms, and we create a space that allows us to see our own practice. Our learning takes place as a direct result of our community and our ability to look at our own practice. We come together to support each other, and this facilitates a learning process.
Moving forward, as we all find new opportunities for learning this summer and into next school year, my hope is that we can all find both windows and mirrors to see our work in new lights. Learning is both communal and individual. We learn because we ask questions. We grow through our interactions with one another. We raise challenging and provocative issues and these topics push me to consider different perspectives. That process is learning. S&S has provided a community for me to examine my learning and through pondering around this question from last August with my colleagues, I have learned.
Ted Domers is the PhilWP Scholar. He also co-facilitates the Philadelphia Writing Project's Summer Invitational Institute and a teacher inquiry group called Struggles and Strategies. Ted joined the Philadelphia Writing Project as a teacher consultant in 2007.