A Community of practice for teacher education academics

This paper reports the early development of the Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) group created by six secondary teacher education academics. Throughout 2012, we each gave a 60-minute presentation about our methodology unit. The sessions were informal to enable sharing and discussion. To measure the impact of the presentations and consider possible future directions, we each wrote a 500-word reflection on our experiences. A research assistant, who was not a STEP member, interviewed us individually for about 20 minutes. The research assistant analysed the reflections and interview responses in terms of Wenger's (1998) three defining features of a community of practice: mutual engagement, a joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. Results indicate that the STEP group enhanced collegiality by enabling a better understanding of the challenges faced by others, strengthened common purpose and inclusion, and provided a rich opportunity to reflect on pedagogy and improve practice. The paper offers positive insight into a collaborative pedagogical culture for teacher education academics.