Key Concepts
The Promoting Learning & Teaching Communities: Institutional Leadership Project was initially underpinned by four concepts:- building leadership capacity;
- through a base of communities of practice;
- focusing on improvements in learning and teaching;
- within a context of strategic, organizational support.
The project was originally conceived of in the context of ANU introducing a policy for rewarding, enhancing and managing academic staff performance that includes evidence of teaching for promotion. However the project shifted from a focus on individual capacity building and also on individual reward through promotion to considering group-based capacity building.
Many people will have a view of leadership, but perhaps may not be familiar with the distributed model, that this project is based on, nor of how it can impact on excellence in teaching and learning.
Communities of practice is a relatively unfamiliar concept within academia, but essentially communities are groups of people with shared interests or passion working together. In our communities of practice, members through the context of their tasks and goals have been:
- working on ideas about excellence in teaching and learning;
- reflecting on their shared knowledge & relationships; and
- making changes in practice, resources or culture.
Within the University this knowledge sharing has been in essence a way to explore how leadership contributes to excellence in teaching and learning.
