In recent months I have been spending some time preparing for my upcoming viva exam and have been fortunate enough to have had not one, but two practice runs with peers during April and May. Their feedback, individually and collectively, was incredibly valuable and allowed for considerable improvements to be made between the runs and I have no doubt, for the big day itself. The thought struck me that this community of ours, facilitated by meeting on alternate Saturdays as a dedicated PhD Study Day, has parallels with a concept from my PhD research, that is, a community-of-peer learners, inspired by Barbara Rogoff’s work on communities of learners, described as follows:
In a community of learners, both mature members of the community and less mature members are conceived as active; no role has all the responsibility for knowing or directing, and no role is by definition passive.
Rogoff, 2004, p. 213
Setting aside the notion of maturity since most of us in this particular community are mature students (anyone for lifelong learning?), it is our participation in, and activity that occurs during and as a result of, the Study Day (yes, capitalised on purpose) that contributes to the concept of community. As Rogoff notes, “learning is a matter of how people transform through participation in the activities of their communities” (1994, p. 226). Applying this to my PhD journey, I have nurtured a number of communities along the way, most consisting of just one other person, one consisting of four other persons. These all have an important role to play since my investment in actively participating in these communities has resulted in becoming a better researcher than I would have been travelling on my journey alone.
It is, however, the Saturday PhD Study Day community, with a broad range of peers across programmes within the department, across age-based, cultural and geographical divides, that has been transformative in my learning development and has afforded me a community within which I have forged lifelong learning connections. Whether participating in a breakout room conversation topic during one of the regular breaks throughout the day, or chatting in one of the MS Teams threads at any time, there is always at least one person to help with any question or query that might arise. The benefits from this community, I believe, are representative of the bonding type of social capital, “dense but bounded networks, homogeneity of membership, high levels of reciprocity and trust, exclusion of outsiders” (Field, 2005, p. 34).
For me, this has all culminated in an able and willing subset of our community-of-peer learners, all of whom I trust implicitly, to help me with my viva preparation. In line with Field’s description above I will happily reciprocate when your turn comes around, in alphabetical order, Anoud (viva completed in December 2022), Celeste, Gabi (viva scheduled for June), Geraldine, Karen and Rachel. For now, thank you all.
Until next time, Sandra
References:
Field, J. (2005). Social capital and lifelong learning. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.46692/9781847421265
Rogoff, B. (1994). Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1(4), 209-229.
Rogoff, B., Matusov, E., & White, C. (1996). Models of teaching and learning: Participation in a community of learners. In The handbook of education and human development (pp. 388-414).
Sandra Flynn 