Adjuncts and communities of practice

Engaging Adjunct LIS Faculty as Educators through

Communities of Practice (CoPs)ALISE Annual Conference, January 2017

Sarah W. Sutton, PhD (@sarahwws)Sandra Valenti, PhD (@sandyvalenti1)

Today’s Presentation✴Theoretical framework from which our COPs are developing

✴Benefits of COPs for LIS ✴COPs in SLIM✴Challenges encountered at Emporia State

✴Solutions to those challenges✴Action research project

Wenger & Lave FrameworkWhile studying apprenticeship as a learning model, anthropologist Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) discovered a complex set of social relationships through which learning takes place mostly with journeymen and more advanced apprentices.

The term community of practice was coined to refer to the community that acts as a living curriculum for the apprentice.

Wenger’s Model

CoPs in Higher Education✴Provide solutions to common challenges to adjunct support:✓ lack of preparation to teach (Taft, 2012)✓ provision of support to those who are

geographically distant from the home institution (Schnitzer & Crosby, 2003)

✓ improved communication stream (Baker & Beams, 2016)

✓ Can also be beneficial for new on-site faculty

Benefits to Adjuncts

✴Knowledge sharing & informal exchange of ideas

✴Sense of community✴Collaboration, sharing of resources✴Sharing tacit knowledge between full time and adjunct faculty

✴Better teaching✴Improved student learning

(Guzzo, 2013; Schnitzer & Crosby, 2003; Taft, 2012; Web, Wong, & Hubball, 2013)

Benefits for LIS Education✴Informal exchange of ideas ✴Synchronous or asynchronous format (web conferences, recorded or live) gives access to all

✴Opportunity for adjunct faculty to interact with the learning management system as a student

✴Practitioners can share day-to-day experiences in the library environment

✴Topic-specific groups (leadership, organization of information, archives, etc.)

Benefits for LIS Education

✴A more standardized student experience via common assignments✴Allows national adjunct faculty freedom and creativity in course building

✴Opens better channels for discussion

CoPs in SLIM

✴Connect geographically distributed adjunct faculty

✴Organized by functional area✴Led by full time, tenure track faculty✴Formalized in anticipation of reaccreditation✴Provide learning opportunities related to how & what they teach

CoPs in SLIM

✴Integrate adjuncts' expertise and knowledge with the SLIM program outcomes and values.

✴Benefit new and junior faculty as well as adjuncts

✴Create relationships between faculty and practitioners

✴Sharing & learning in functional areas and pedagogy

Challenges Encountered

✴Lack of time✴No “strong” leader for all communities

✴Lack of systems access when off contract

✴Asynchronous nature of coast-to-coast living

✴Variance in technology skills

Dali: The Persistence of Memory

Challenges to Explore✴Power, trust, predispositions, and size & spacial reach (Roberts, 2006).

✴Influence of communications technology on CoPs (e.g. Fox, 2000)

✴Stigma attached to sharing learning resources?✴Common understanding of the type and pace of the community (Roberts, 2006)

✴Sustaining engagement (Reilly, Vandenhouten, Gallagher-Lepak, 2012)

Solutions to Challenges✴LMS-based "Orientation & Ongoing Support" classroom

✴Faculty learning brown-bag lunches✴Connecting face-to-face at distance teaching sites

✴CoP meetings for faculty and adjuncts to review syllabi and assignments before each semester

✴The timely use of discussion prompts to spur conversation

✴Literature- and research-based solutions

Solutions to Challenges

✴What would you do?

Action Research Project

Source: Valencia College

All Aboard: Developing a Robust Community of Practice

Action Research Project

Some questions:✴What does each CoP “look like” today?✓hat works well?✓hat needs improvement?

✴What power structures have already developed?✴How effective is each CoP?✓Based on faculty opinion✓Based on national adjunct faculty opinion

Action Research Project

After evaluating responses, web-based focus groups will help in the development of guidelines for activity.

References

Fox, S. (2000). ‘Communities of practice, Foucault and actor-network theory’. Journal of Management Studies, 37(6), 853–67.

Guzzo, L. R. (2013). Case study: The transfer of tacit knowledge from community college full-time to adjunct faculty. ProQuest LLC.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.

Reilly, J. R., Vandenhouten, C., & Gallagher-Lepak, S. (2012) Faculty development for e-learning: multi-campus community of practice (COP) approach. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(2), 99-110.

Roberts, J. (2006). Limits to communities of practice. Journal of Management Studies, 43(3).

Schnitzer, M., & Crosby, L. S. (2003). Recruitment and Development of Online Adjunct Instructors. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 6(2).

Taft, M. M. (2012, January 1). Fostering higher order critical thinking in 21st century teachers. ProQuest LLC.

Webb, A. S., Wong, T. J., & Hubball, H. T. (2013). Professional development for adjunct teaching faculty in a research-intensive university: Engagement in scholarly approaches to teaching and learning. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(2), 231–238.

Continue the Conversation

Sarah Sutton: ssutton3@emporia.eduSandy Valenti: svalenti@emporia.edu