To us, community is a web of mutual care around a shared possibility. It is easy to generalize ‘community’ as any group of people with shared interests, or as structures, digital tools or events. For us, the essence of community is relationships of care, held together by a sense of kinship and mutual support. We use the language of community weaving to remind us that we can’t build a web of relationships. That community is a living practice. And that our work is to weave a flourishing tapestry of reciprocity.
Community Weaving Framework
We talk a lot about networks and communities in education. We talk about Community of Inquiry, nurturing virtual student communities and helping students stay connected. We also recognise the importance of building our own personal and professional learning networks through communities of practice and ‘meetups’ on all kinds of topics, from improving our video skills to Professional Education and Practice (PEPN) and the UTS Learning Design Meetup.
So what do we know about building and being part of healthy communities? Can we put our skills to work and design communities for educators and learners to embrace and enhance their learning too?
5 elements for weaving community
Research into this topic takes you far and wide, with no shortage of frameworks, models and suggestions about networks and communities within and beyond educational settings. The recently-published Community Weaving Framework has an especially intriguing focus on ‘healthy’ communities and the concept of ‘weaving’ communities. It emphasises a web of relationships rather than a fixed, static creation.
The framework identifies five elements that strengthen the health of a community.
🔥 The Fire: What brings us together?
At the centre of each community is a fire: a source of possibility and energy that draws people in. The fire attracts people and keeps them coming back. It can be a collective identity, shared purpose and core values, and offer a sense of belonging.
🕸 The Web: What holds us together?
We think of community as an invisible web of relationships. The web is strong when relationships are based on trust, respect and mutual care. By creating intentional opportunities for people to get to know each other, we strengthen the fabric of our community.
🪘 The Rhythm: How do we connect regularly?
Healthy communities have a steady heartbeat. Rhythms are rooted in the value we create with and for each other and ideally our practices allow us to regularly express and share, supported by easily accessible communication channels. Our rhythms are also part of bigger natural cycles, including seasons of bustling activity and seasons of rest.
⭕️ The Circles: What roles we can play?
In every community, some people contribute a lot and some very little, with many people in between. These different layers of participation are natural and change over time.
- In the inner circle are people who take care of the whole (stewards, guardians or firekeepers)
- In the middle circle are those who actively participate (members or co-creators)
- In the outer circle are people who connect more loosely (friends or followers)
🌀 The Spiral: How do we journey together?
Communities are complex living organisms. People move in, around, and out of communities as commitments and contexts change. How do we support these moments of transition, both on the individual and collective level? And what pathways help people move through the community
consciously?
[Note: summary above adapted from the framework’s Creative Commons resources]
What could this mean for learning designers and learning communities?
Each of the 5 elements invites active reflection on community through questions and resources on topics such as people and purpose, inclusion and reciprocity. Questions that arise from these topics may be general in nature, but are easily adapted to the context of learning and learning design, and align with concepts already familiar to us (e,g. belonging).
In educational contexts, we might consider questions like these through various lenses, including:
- Students – how are we weaving inclusive communities into learning spaces and experiences for students?
- Institutional structures – how can we enhance the health of our institutional teams and cross-functional relationships?
- Learning designers – how can learning designers weave and nurture communities within and outside formal educational structures?
Are you building or leading a learning community, participating in one or perhaps hanging out at the edges, wondering whether to warm your hands at the fire? If you’ve used this framework or a similar one, how did it help you manage your own role or work with others?
Explore more
- Community Weaving – the framework and resources for working with it.
- Community Canvas – a partner project to Community Weaving, this is a tool to co-develop a community strategy with useful templates and worksheets.