In which community improves practice
Posted By Barbara Lindsey on May 4, 2009
It’s been almost a month now since my son, Benjamin, received word from the Office of the Consulate General of Japan in Boston that he has been selected to serve as an Assistant Language Teacher in the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program for next year. As those of us who have been fortunate enough to live, study and work for an extended period in another country know, this will be an exciting and profoundly life-changing experience for him. Considering the unfamiliar linguistic, cultural and geographical territories Ben will soon explore, he (and his future students) would benefit from more advanced preparation than our friends Phileas Fogg and Passepartout were allotted. Not so very long ago—and certainly back in my day several decades ago—figuring out what to expect and how to plan for this adventure meant searching for and contacting local program alums. Depending on the questions you thought to ask, the number of alums you could reach, their helpfulness and the usefulness of their responses, you were more or less prepared for your journey.
But Ben and his cohorts have much better options now, courtesy of the Official JET Programme Online Forum, a web-based, moderated, global discussion group, where over one thousand community members of future, current and former JET participants share information on an exhaustive list of topics related to the JET experience. Even before Ben submitted his application way back in November of last year, he already had a very good sense of whether or not this opportunity was really for him, what the interview process would be like and what to expect as a program participant. But this forum is much more than a simple FAQ site. This is a committed, purposeful community of practice that “gives members a sense of joint enterprise and identity” that, in conjunction with planned JET orientation sessions, mid-year workshops and various support resources, is focused on creating an environment conducive to success. And so months before he leaves for Japan at the end of July, he already is a connected, vested member of this particular group. As Ben moves from being a peripheral participant in this forum, taking advantage of the knowledge and insights of his peers, to acquiring and then sharing his growing expertise, he will in turn sustain and nurture the collective learning enterprise of this community.
Isn’t this what we want to see in our own programs—a community of engaged, resource-sharing, resource-building practitoners? And not just in our study abroad programs, although if any university study abroad program out there is providing the kind of collaborative, ongoing, participant interchange that the JET program does, we would love to hear about it. Instead, what I see are programs for our majors and minors designed around courses that address content and proficiency standards with little or no thought to finding ways to promote what could be very powerful, inclusive learning communities.
If we expect our graduates to become members of our communities of practice, we must provide them with the experiences, the venues, and the models to do so. Online forums, wikis, and other social networks are easy to set up and use; so it’s not the technology that is difficult. In fact, most course management systems include, at the least, forums or threaded discussion lists. But if we truly want to support and promote lifelong learning and create communities of practice, then we need to be willing to learn with and from our students as well. That means being willing to go beyond our comfort zone at times, ready to assume the roles of novice and developing expert alongside our role as expert and accepting of our students in those roles as well. And we need to bring our communities out from behind those university course management walled gardens so that everyone—faculty, students, graduates and future students—can inform the learning that takes place there. The Jet Program approach might be a good starting point.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Photo credit: Teamwork by Buddy Venturanza
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