Communities of Practice: The Human Side of Implementation

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Communities of PracticeThe Human Side of
Implementation

• Joanne Cashman, Ed. D.
• Director
• The Policymaker Partnership
• at
• The National Association of State Directors of
  Special Education

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Nothing is more validating and affirming than
feeling understood. And the moment a person
begins feeling understood, that person becomes
far more open to influence and change. Step
hen Covey
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Why Do We Need A New Way of Working?

• We have a knowing and doing gap.
• We need to move promising strategies to scale.
• We have an ongoing need for security when
  undertaking change.
• Problems are complex and interrelated. We need
  to find a course of action within the complexity.

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How Can We Find a Course of Action Within the
Complexity of Current Issues?

• We need to be able to operate at the intersection
  of research, policy and practice.
• States as leverage points
• Stakeholders as partners
• Federal agencies as collaborators
• OSEP investments as resources
• OSEP and NASDSE as change leaders

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Communities Can Be a Powerful New Strategy for
Technical Assistance

• We are currently well positioned to
• Conduct new research
• Publish research findings
• Collect and report implementation trends
• Disseminate topical
• Support discrete efforts
• Stimulate and inspire thinking

• We need to become well positioned to
• Help implementers find
• meaning in research
• findings that will guide
• practice
• Help implementers create action
  initiatives bridging research and practice
• Support action initiatives distributed across
  states and locals
• Study and record the creation of new knowledge
  from real practice that is grounded in research

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Communities as a National TA Strategy

• Transactional Communities Shaping and spreading
  effective practice
• Sharing
• Supporting
• Learning
• Often organized at the same level, same role, or
  same site
• Creating new knowledge across organizational
  boundaries
• Transformational Communities Reframing policy,
  research and practice
• Learning how to move from knowing to doing
• Translating learnings to policy
• Encouraging investments that will move the work
• Most often cross-organization, cross-role,
  cross-site
• Recognizing the value of all the contributions to
  a more complete and effective approach
• Creating new relationships between policymakers,
  researchers and implementers

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Levels of Influence, Learning and Community
Building
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It is better to know some of the questions than
all of the answers. James Thurber