The Power of a Slice: Building Community through Collaborative, Reflective Practice

• In Event: Collaborative Self-Study as Co-construction of Embodied Knowledge in Teacher Education

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores collaborative, reflective practice to make visible the daily work of teacher educators and to consider the educative functions that interconnect across that work.

Perspective(s)

Like the other collaborative self-studies in this symposium, this paper considered Inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999), communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002), collaborative reflective practice, and embodied pedagogy (Ord & Nutthall, 2016). In this inquiry, teacher educators engaged in a reflective practice focused on tangible artifacts from their daily work as teacher educators. Recognizing the importance of domains of knowledge (Goodwin & Kosnick, 2013) and working in and across communities, a group of teacher educators took a deep dive into meanings behind our work and enacted practice.

Mode of inquiry

Building from our initial collaborative self-study (Authors, 2023), we used the Slice protocol (http://schoolreforminitiative.org/doc/slice.pdf) in conversation with diverse teacher educators from a wide range of programs and institutions as a guide for inquiry and dialogue. As in our earlier study, we used critical friendship (Hadar & Brody, 2016) and a three-phased coding process (Saldaňa, 2021) for analysis to identify educative (Dewey, 1938/1963) functions that interconnect throughout our work.

We first re-analyzed our own Slice and explicated it using one-to-one interviews investigating questions around Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) in our practice and what we could learn about ourselves as teacher educators. We found that neither the similarities and differences in our titles nor those in our settings could indicate the breadth and depth of our practice related to DEI. Our commitments were evident throughout our embodied work of design, leadership, and advocacy. We found that irrespective of group size, teacher educators using the Slice process were finding similar connections with each other regardless of their diverse contexts and considering the various educative functions of teacher educators.

Materials

In this study, the Slice process itself became an artifact. Employing the Slice protocol across contexts, we found that it was useful as a springboard for each participant to take into their own settings.

Results

The findings from our shared critical analysis lead us away from concentrating on the specific roles of teacher educators – literacy educator, math educator, etc. or Department Chair, Dean, etc. Rather, our findings lead to consideration of the various functions of teacher educators as embodied in our practice and interconnect across our work in dynamic ways (Ord & Nutall, 2016). Likewise, we found our professional learning through this process served as personally educative and, in the broadest sense, educative regarding our profession.


Scholarly significance

Teacher education can be isolating, and the work of teacher educators is often done alone, even when working within a community of practice. The Slice protocol is one way to build community among teacher educators for support in and across contexts. This collaborative self-study builds on our prior work to make the work of teacher educators visible across diverse contexts and communities and can serve as a lever for teacher educators to engage in collaborative, reflective practice.

Authors

• Carrie A. Nepstad, City Colleges of Chicago

• Frances OC Rust, University of Pennsylvania