Blog #4: Chapter 4 - Building a Collaborative Culture

        Educators make education meaningful and relevant not only for themselves, but also for their students. They do this by co-creating learning and sharing. They try to encourage the collaborative construction of knowledge of practice. However, collaboration sometimes tends to be a difficult concept in traditional environments. Collaboration is extremely important as it gives the people a meaningful reason to stay connected and work together. "Collaboration grows from relationships in which trust, collegiality, shared vision, and group development flourish."
        Relationships matter therefore it is extremely important to put relationships first. The first step towards building collorative cultures is to foster, nurture, and maintain positive, congenial relationships. Schools need both congenial and collegial relationships. The difference between congeniality and collegiality is that congeniality refers to the polite, friendly relationship while collegiality is a shared belief that none of us is as good as all of us. Relationships that mature over time through everyday sharing and participation establish trust. Trust, empathy, and reciprocity bond members together in a community.

        Establishing trust is immensely important. Trust is what brings us together. Trust is formed when people do what they say they will do. Furthermore, collegial relationships create real change. In collegial relationships, connected educators share ideas and challenge each other's thinking. These collegial relationships makes us better educators. Shared vision is developed for the future of learning. "A shared vision that connects to passion, day-to-day work, and school improvement is important in creating a collabortive culture that supports the connected learner."
        In my future profession as a physician assistant, the concepts that I have learned in this chapter will help me make connections with others. In my future profession, collaborating with colleagues will be extremely important. Collaborating with others will help me stay connected with them. Collaborating with others will help me gain knowledge. All these concepts can definitely apply to my future profession/career.

Reference:
Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Hall, L. R. (2012). The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press

Question:
How is collaborating with others important in your future profession/career?