Compassionate collaboration, choice and creativity: Learning communities against the grain in hierarchical institutions

This short article accompanies the one by Claire Badger, Miles Golland and Amanda Triccas, also in this edition of Impact. These teacher-authors describe the collaborative interaction that is promoted by teacher learning communities (TLCs) and student learning communities in Godolphin and Latymer School. They define this as ‘constructing knowledge with others’ and they emphasise the power of talking with colleagues face to face at regular intervals of time. They also discuss ‘peer learning’, in which colleagues support and encourage each other’s learning, regardless of their position in the formal school hierarchy. They highlight the importance of learning community membership being voluntary rather than coerced, and how each teacher or student exercises agency by determining their own route for change. They tell us that new learning, outside the comfort zone, and creative risk-taking are also essential parts of the process. These emphases in a thriving school like Godolph