Session Information
32 SES 13, Creating Learning Communities: Collaboration in Doctoral Journeys
Symposium
Contribution
Some organisations, like universities, banks, football clubs, exist in relatively firm structures, because they have been created for specific purposes, and have an expectation of continuance even if membership changes. Others, like coffee circles and book clubs, exist in more fluid form, and are to a much larger extent dependent for their purpose and structure on their changing membership. Communities of doctoral students fit into both patterns. By reason of their candidature they are part of, and to a large extent, dependent on, the organisational structure and vision of a university, but collaborations and interpersonal support structures evolve through voluntary engagement. This symposium examines the creation and development of doctoral communities of practice that actively engage to become learning communities.
Traditionally, doctoral study tended to be a mostly solitary programme of exploration. In recent years, the number of educators undertaking doctorates has grown exponentially and some teams of supervisors have begun to develop models of collaboration in doctoral study that better align with understandings of learning as a social as well as an individual process that is complex and multi-directional. Our earlier research (Greenwood et al 2015; 2014, 2013) Henderson & Noble, 2015; Noble & Henderson, 2013, 2014) reported the early development of two doctoral learning communities: one in New Zealand and one in Australia, both with networks of international students from Europe, the Pacific and Asia. We reported the vulnerability and sense of marginalisation many students felt because of differences in culture and in the social and conceptual contexts that prompted their research. We also reported the opportunities that arose through the learning communities for enriching encounters and provocative debate emerging from widely different perspectives and experiences.
Just as a challenge exists for more formalised organisations to orientate themselves internationally and multiculturally and to respond creatively to mediatised, and globalised, and sometimes homogenising, change, so too is there a similar challenge for communities (virtual and physical) of doctoral students. The research reported in this symposium suggests that not only is normal doctoral study to some extent a supraindividual, collective, organisational learning processes, as well as an individual one, but that students and theirsupervisors can benefit from actively engaging in the critical reflection and collectivity provided in active learning communities. We see this exploration having relevance not only for the organisational and inter-relational aspects of doctoral candidature but also for the nature of research itself, and on our understandings of its process, values and ethicality.
The papers in this symposium report on the ways those learning communities have evolved over a period of time, the ways they have provided a “communicative space” for students to examine and navigate the spaces of and between the international academy and the perspectives and needs of their home community, and the way they have facilitated and reflectively critiqued “exploratory action” in creating further learning communities within doctoral research projects.
Our overarching methodological approach is one of participatory action research and critical reflection on practice. The broad theoretical frame for the symposium draws on concepts of the critically interactive and creative nature of learning communities (Greenwood et al, 2015; Wagner, 1998), the processes of participatory action research (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2006) and collaborative critical reflection (Henderson & Noble, 2015). We report critical episodes and decisions identify challenges, risks and apparent failures as well as successful outcomes. We also report the nature of the dialogues that took place in the communicative spaces and the ways these have been translated into exploratory action and in some cases praxis. We also postulate the transferability of our learning to other opportunities for learning communities to evolve in organisational contexts.
References
Greenwood, J., Alam, A., Salahuddin, A., Barrett, T., Mohammed, M. and Rasheed, H. (2014) Learning Communities and the Doctoral Journey: Developing Interaction, Criticality and Collaboration. Porto, Portugal: ECER 2014, Greenwood, J., Alam, S. and Kabir, A. (2014) Educational Change & International Trade in Teacher Development: achieving local goals within/despite a transnational context. Journal of Studies in International Education 18(4): Greenwood, J., Alam, S., Salahuddin, A.N.M. and Rasheed, M.M.H-A. (2015) Learning communities and fair trade in doctorates and development: report of a collaborative project. Globalisation, Societies and Education Henderson, R. & Noble, K. (2013). Thinking about first year retention in teacher education: Three students in a regional university and their metaphors of survival. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 23(2), Noble, K. & Henderson, R. (2012). What is capacity building and why does it matter? Developing a model of workforce capacity building through the case of Education Commons. In: Constructing capacities: Building capabilities through learning and engagement. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Henderson, R. & Noble, K. (2015). Professional learning, induction and critical reflection: Building workforce capacity in education. London: Palgrave Pivot. Kemmis, S. and McTaggart, R. (2000) "Participatory action research", in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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