Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 1

Showcase URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzmbPaUjETg

During the beginning stages, the team reflected on passed group assessments and staff

meetings attended during professional placement, and quickly indicated the importance of

using our time together effectively—setting goals early and collaborating to achieve those

goals in order to be effective change agents (Phillips, 2011). From these initial meetings to

the end creation of the group’s project-based learning initiative, the challenges and strengths

undergone demonstrate the development of the leadership skills of our community of

practice. The present critically reflective paper will discuss and evaluate the process I took, as

part of Team 02A, to develop our project-based learning sustainability program, linking this

process to effective teacher leadership practice, and suggesting areas for improvement.

As a collaborative team of teacher leaders, our group’s primary goal was to further

cultivate through action the community of practice we were developing throughout our

learning. For the project-based proposal, our selected experiential strand was the

sustainability curriculum theme. Prior to our meeting in order to design the proposal for our

project, we had already had time to unpack the various strengths and assets of our group

members, stemming from out multiple KLAs and professional placement experiences. We

therefore tacitly agreed to an organisational structure akin to distributed leadership, in which

leadership roles were shared, and all team members of equal value and able to share and

assess presented ideas (Lee, Hallinger & Walker, 2012). The benefit of this structure allowed

for a group culture, in which ideas a freely shared and critiqued, and provided a collaborative

atmosphere identified as important for teacher leadership and a vital component for fostering

change (Leithwood et al., 2008).

However, despite the strength of our organisational structure, one beginning challenge

our community of practice faced concerned definitively deciding upon which of the threads
Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 2

we would select. No one in the group was willing to strongly pitch an idea for our group to

get started, which led to a kind of paralysis of thought in which little was achieved. Through

reflection in action—or the process of reflection in the moment (Collier & Williams, 2005)—

as evidence in the week 5 tutorial task, we all agreed about the importance of personal agency

and utilising our own cultural assets to be effective future teacher leaders. However, despite

this discussion, I still allowed myself to “take a limited role” in the initial development of the

project, akin to the identified attribute of individual teachers to rely on others when shaping

their own professional learning (Lovett, Dempster & Flückiger, 2015, p. 128). Upon

reflection of my initial limited role, I now realise that I was reluctant to instruct others given

the distributed nature of our leadership team. Better management of individual roles during

our weekly meetings and stricter goal setting that does not easily allow for delays and

inaction, which we agreed to early on in order to be effective teacher leaders but did not

stringently practice (Phillips, 2011), would have addressed this issue sooner.

In fact, it was only through the constraints of time that I presented a pitch to the

group, suggesting the sustainability experiential strand, which was quickly accepted and

adopted. Through reflection on action—or the more typical reflecting back on something that

has transpired (Yanow & Tsoukas, 2009)—it is clearer to me now that we should better

debated and assessed the available strands, as it seems that my suggestion was accepted more

out of necessity than interest in the topic or belief in our ability to achieve success. This is

especially concerning, as self-efficacy and belief that one can make a difference is correlated

with higher achievement teacher leaders, as well as with students (Hallinger et al., 2018).

Reflection over this experience also demonstrates to me the benefit and importance of a

cyclic and repeated approach to self-reflection, as both in and on action reflections have

provided more nuanced means of interrogating and integrating my learning as part of the

“continuum of reflective practice” (Yanow & Tsoukas, 2009, p. 1340).

Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 3

Ultimately I selected Katoomba High School as the target school, given my

knowledge of it as my former school and prior area of professional placement. I also decided

upon sustainability strand at the same time, as I was aware of sustainable assets within the

school and wider community, as well as cultural attitudes of the Blue Mountains toward

conservation and ecology. This approach was successful, as my initial pitch to the group

came from a place of feasibility, outlining and utilising the available cultural assets surround

the school that make implementation of an initiative feasible instead of deficits that need

addressing, meaning the benefit to school effectiveness and improvement were easier to see

(Rooney, 2018). However, our knowledge of the problems in the school surrounding

sustainability were limited, meaning the central goal of the project to simply increase

sustainable knowledge and practice was somewhat simplistic. Ensuring better unity between

the school, its assets, and the problem being addressed would have our proposal and

intervention more meaningful.

From here, the HERTSCAM model of teacher-led development was selected for its

two-dimensional approach that necessitates frequent reflection and deliberation, as well as the

structural support that “enables the teacher to identify an appropriate focus for a project and

to operationalise it in such a way that it will be successful in bringing about improvements to

practice” (Frost, 2013, p. 7-8). The use of this model was successful in the development of

our initiative and effectively organising our community of practice, as it provided a clear

structure to follow and set the group back on track, now having to consider the purpose of our

intervention more carefully. Upon reflection, I now recognise that adoption of the model

earlier into the process would have addressed the aforementioned unity of purpose, setting,

and assets problem, as well as ensured reflective process during the initial stages of

development.
Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 4

In regard to the initiative specifics, I suggested a project-based learning initiative

across multiple levels of the curriculum, given the diversity of the groups teaching

specialisations and the relevancy of sustainability across all curriculum areas. This was

quickly agreed to, and a successful part of the design, as it utilised the assets of our

community of practice and continued to share leadership roles based on these strengths.

Moreover, the 21st Century skills of person/social and ethical capabilities were correlated,

given the community engagement and reflective aspects of the program. The initiative then

began to reflect the leadership qualities of our community of practice, as the project mobilises

students’ collaborative and problem-solving ethical concerns to become their own agents for

change in sustainable practice. This is especially valuable for students, as cultivating empathy

and relationship building is an important change in teacher-led settings that allows students to

thrive (Pink, 2005). These multiple levels of design were perhaps the most successful part of

the proposal, and demonstrate the importance of utilising a development model and

continually reflecting and supporting leadership decisions within a community of practice.

Although our team faced difficulties, several strengths were demonstrated through our

development of our community of practice. In particular, fostering an open, collaborative

environment early on allowed for team member’s areas of interest and assets to emerge,

providing direction an efficient utilisation of our respective skillsets when developing the

sustainability initiative. Moreover, the use of the HERTSCAM model provided structure to

our community of practice and initiated reflexive practice. However, several challenges were

faced, including reluctance of participation, time constraints, and simplistic program design

due to poor unity at the design stage. Ultimately, operationalising teacher leadership theories

effectively was the greatest hurdle, as the benefit was not apparent until put into practice.

Looking forward, proactively developing as an agent of change remains a significant

Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 5

challenge as I progress as a beginning teacher leader into a new context and new community

of practice.
Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 6

References

Collier, P. J. & Williams, D. R. (2005). Reflection in action: The learning-doing relationship.

In C. M. Cress, P. J. Collier, & V. L. Retenauer (Eds.) Learning through serving (pp.

83-97). Retrieved from

http://masoncblfaculty.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/46624253/Reflection%20in%20Acti

on.pdf

Frost, D. (2013). Teacher-led development work: A methodology for building professional

knowledge, HertsCam Publications. Retrieved from

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april2013(1).pdf

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10.1080/19415257.2014.891532
Matthew Cooke, 17299158 CTL Critical Reflection 7

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