Meanings of Community: Educational Developers Experience Care, Satisfying Contributions, and Belonging in a Collaboration across Institutions

Authors

• Thomas M. Colclough, University of California, IrvineFollow
• William J. Howitz, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Daniel Mann, University of California, Irvine
• Katherine Kearns, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Darren S. Hoffmann, University of Iowa

ORCID IDs

Colclough 0000-0002-9228-4404

Howitz 0000-0001-6323-7126

Mann 0000-0003-0206-289X

Kearns 0000-0003-1487-3550

Hoffmann 0000-0003-1081-5222

Date of this Version

Fall 2023

Document Type

Article

Citation

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development (2023) 42(2): 9

doi: 10.3998/tia.2637

Comments

License: CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

We share insights from a mixed methods study to describe the experience of educational developers participating in a community of practice (CoP). This CoP consisted of 19 leaders at eight institutions, serving collectively as facilitators of a hybrid, across-institutional, seven-week workshop series on course design for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. From results of a survey examining the functional and sustaining features of the community, we illustrate that members experience the community aspect of our CoP primarily as a sense of satisfaction/personal fulfillment and, to an extent, in the effectiveness/productiveness of collaborations between members. Members of our CoP experience several community-related benefits specific to their across-institution collaborations. We demonstrate the importance of members’ sense of belonging, overall professional development, and well-being for sustaining our CoP.