Online learning & professional development - A video presentation of my thesis


The main reason for my absence in the discussion group and synchronous sessions is due to my thesis. It has been an intense couple of weeks and I am proud to say it is now finished and approved by my advisor. In addition to that, I submitted my abstract to present it at the University of Pittsburgh in the Seminar of Cultures of the Lusosphere. I was terrified of showing my work to the world - the world in this case being students and professors from outside my Alma Mater -, but it all worked out fine.

I decided to cut the theoretical background off the presentation since the Seminar was heavily focused on how research shows the Portuguese speaking population around the world. Hence, I felt that the adult learning theories were not essential to the presentation and I was given 15 minutes to talk - which was no easy task!

The main focus of my project was to analyze how Brazilian English teaching professionals used a particular Facebook group page to work on their professional development. I noticed the community was highly active - 550 new posts were created in a 20-day period! - and I wanted to check how much of what I had been learning about communities of practice and participatory culture was present within their interactions. 

Wenger posited in his 1998 monograph that three main characteristics define a community of practice: mutual engagement, joint activity involving a collective process of negotiation, and shared repertoire.  For Jenkins, participatory culture offers low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creation and sharing, and some form of informal mentorship. Hence, it is a place where contributors are usually acknowledged and valued (2007). My case study shows evidence of all of the aforementioned aspects, which is great news for the teachers who are really involved in this community. 

For anyone curious enough to see how the presentation went, I am leaving you a link of my friend's recording of it (just click on the image below). It is a 14 minute video, so I would encourage you to catch the introduction (0:36-1:20) and jump to the second half of the video since there is more "juice" in it. The Q&A was not filmed, but it left me with wonderful ideas on how to further my research in the future. Also, I would be more than happy to share my integrative project for anyone who would like to learn more about how I approached theory and practice.



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