As a means of supporting faculty as they create community around the issues that matter to them, we offer Pratt faculty a way of engaging in communities of practice or communities of inquiry (CoPI).
The hope is that these one-semester long faculty communities form webs of support for new and continuing faculty alike. To that end, all CoPI groups have a mix of faculty––some with institutional memory at Pratt and some new to teaching and/or new to teaching at Pratt.
The basic features of a CoPI include the following:
- A group of no more than 6 Pratt faculty;
- A practice or inquiry topic that connects the group;
- A budget plan, including participant stipends, specific to the group;
- A meeting schedule, as determined by the group;
- Commitment to two additional meetings over the course of the semester with the CTL and other active CoPIs;
- Before and after surveys for all participants using the Diener flourishing scale.
The most important feature of a CoPI is that it’s based on practice or inquiries important to those in the group, usually initiated by one or two faculty who then act as facilitators.
Past CoPIs include groups focused on practices of deep listening, designing/implementing research projects, inquiries into decolonial pedagogy and interdisciplinary research.
If you’re interested in learning more or have an idea for a CoPI you’d like to run, please contact ctl@pratt.edu and we can step you through the brief proposal process.
Preliminary data, using participant feedback suggests that CoPI groups support faculty flourishing and a sense of belonging to community.
This semester, we are excited to have the following CoPI groups:
- Deep Listening Circle
- Embodied Practices
- Embodied Attachment Patterns in Higher Education Classrooms
- Let’s Play: Storytelling Games
References that have informed this program:
- University at Buffalo: Community of Inquiry
- Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger presented by the University of Wisconsin