Mc² = E Learning Reflections

The idea of communities of practice isn't new and in this blog I'm not about to start to recount all the work of the theorists on this subject.  But educators are quite often involved in communities of practice.  They're often comprised of groups of teachers who have similar interests in various aspects of learning and teaching and, during community meetings, we can discuss practice, share practice and support each other in facing the challenges of being an educator in the 21st century.   Recently though, in learning about the concepts and thinking tools devised by Pierre Bourdieu, I realised that communities of practice are in themselves little fields unto themselves where power structures can and do exist.   ( " arm power symbol " by  r3v || cls  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 2.0 .) Thinking back to my early studies in leadership and management I remember coming across the concept of leadership styles and one that intrigued me was the concept of charismatic leader

I'm coming to the end of my first year as a post graduate researcher and its been eventful to say the least.  I've loved it - don't get me wrong!  It hasn't been the smooth start I had hoped for.  But that's OK because it's taught me a lot and my practice has changed as a result. ( " Research " by  astronomy_blog  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 .) It's interesting this idea of change.  Sometimes change can only be seen with the benefit of hindsight, after the impact is felt.  Thinking back to the very beginning I look back at my initial research proposal and contrasting that with the literature review I just submitted for examination, I can see how many preconceptions I had and how biased my own thinking was.   Let's face it, the pandemic was a huge event in our lifetime that coloured all of our thinking.  It made us view life through what I now call "covid tinted glasses" and in so doing, forced us to re-examine our v