What makes a teaching moment: Spheres of influence

Bomer, Randy. (2011). What makes a teaching moment: Spheres of influence. English Journal, 101(1), 56-62.

A community of practice can be a powerful entity. For a professional who is truly engaged in such a community, as Randy Bomer seems to be from his account here, the influence of that community can be present in every thought he has, and every move he makes, as a literacy educator. For Bomer, that community is the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE); this article was written for and published in NCTE’s special 100th anniversary edition of English Journal (note the volume number in the citation for the article above). I think what Bomer is saying about professional communities extends beyond just NCTE, though. Most of us who have been involved in literacy education for any length of time have found intellectual and theoretical “families” in professional organizations like NCTE and its subgroups, in the International Reading Association (IRA), and in the Literacy Research Organization (LRA, formerly the National Reading Conference). The conventions and other gatherings are like “family reunions” (complete with all of the hugs and all of the bickering, and all of the food and drink that you might find at any family reunion). The journals are almost like family “letters” that everyone adds their two cents’ worth to, and which help us keep up with what everyone is doing between “reunions”. As with any family, some of us are leaders and are actively and visibly engaged and known. Others of us hang back a little on the sidelines, fascinating by the goings-on, admiring the ones at the center, but not allowing the spotlight to fall on ourselves. Still, even for those who hang back, the professional community is a presence that pervades our work, almost as if the other members of the community were looking over our shoulders (a Biblical reference about a “cloud of witnesses” in heaven overseeing our earthly doings suddenly comes to mind). Bomer’s account of one day in his work in a middle school, and how the others in the professional community of NCTE were figuratively there with him in that classroom as he interacted with a student named Diedra, shows how Bomer’s consciousness of his membership of that professional community, and his accountability to it, infused every instructional move he made.

Bomer is a regular presenter at NCTE conventions, and a regular writer in NCTE journals. It is clear that he approaches his work from the get-go with the idea that it will be shaped into presentations and articles. I’m wondering how having that purpose from the beginning in turn shapes, and possibly either constrains or expands, his work. Going into a school with an agenda for publication has to make that work different than it would be if publication were not on the agenda, in ways that might be good or not so good. Bomer makes a strong point about accountability to the professional community here, though, a point I will need to ponder seriously as I think about my own work as a literacy educator, which I have not always chosen to share with the professional community and probably need to think about sharing more.