Supporting Community Building | ||||||
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Any time you try to bring in something new, especially if you bring in new parties and try and change the nature of the relationship, you are changing the power dynamics of the situation. While some people will be excited, others will be upset. In addressing the situation take into account whether people are in agreement and whether they trust each other. The strategies will differ depending on whether you ’re dealing with allies (high agreement/high trust); bedfellows (high agreement/low trust); opponents (low agreement/high trust); fence sitters (unknown agreement/low trust); or adversaries (low agreement/low trust). CLIPs enhance community building because they deliberately create a safe, trusting, respectful environment in which to share insights, concerns, solutions, tools, and promising practices to improve teaching and learning. As you provide support for community building, you may find that this part of your work is more important than technical assistance because much of the technical information is readily available in books and online. Two aspects of community building are important here: (a) keeping the CLIPs focused on peer-to-peer problem solving and (b) ensuring that the CLIPs remain “permeable” —allow and encourage input from others—so they don’t develop into cliques. |
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