Moving within learning communities as an act of performing professional wellbeing

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study builds on the Spaces of Wellbeing Theory to investigate the circumstances under which community participation can affect teachers’ capacity to perform wellbeing in anticipation of their daily circumstances. Participants were 10 in-service physical education teachers, members of a Learning Community (LC) of cooperating teachers who supervised undergraduate students in their school practicum. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants divided in three groups, based on their years and type of engagement with the LC. Data analysis followed a qualitative induction approach. Three overarching themes were developed to represent community participation as: (1) learning in practice; (2) social formation; and (3) sharing and belonging. Results showed that both novice and experienced community members approached the LC space with an expectancy to produce or receive professional learning and support. Such a stance mediated conditions of possibility within which personal capacity was bridged with group dynamics. The reframing of teacher wellbeing as a stance of relational being and practice could contribute new understandings of the ways that community connectedness could help teachers imagine alternatives and perform new assemblages of professional becoming.