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Community of Practice

An opportunity to share our experiences as women leaders

As part of the EnPOWER project we will develop a Community of Practice, the EnPOWER CoP, that will create a new research and practice community for: exchanging existing knowledge and ‘know-how’; producing new knowledge; building leadership capacity through peer mentoring and coaching; and celebrating women’s achievements to provide visible role models and case studies of success.

What is the EnPOWER Cop?

The EnPOWER CoP will be a new research and practice community for and about women's’ lives as leaders in HE. 

  • It will provide a ‘safe-space’ to share our experiences with trusted others and to build relationships with other women leaders
  • We can use it to exchange existing knowledge and ‘know-how’ and produce new understanding about working as a woman leader
  • It will build leadership capacity through peer mentoring and coaching.
  • It will allow us to celebrate women’s achievements to provide visible role models and case studies of success in HE

How will the EnPOWER CoP connect to other networks?

The EnPOWER project will connect to  other important CoPs in HE to support sustainability and national and international networking. Identified CoPs include:  

  • International Professional Development Association (IPDA)
  • British Education Leadership and Management Association (BELMAS).

How the CoP Will work?

  • We hope to recruit a minimum of 40 women
  • The CoP will meet both online and face to face. Online events will bring together CoP members from across institutions. Face-to-face events will be hosted by CoP members in their own institutions.
  • Members will share the findings of the project in a dynamic way over the 12 month period of the project, providing opportunities for exploration and discussion of the issues emerging.
  • As the CoP matures and members’ relationships develop, it will also become a space supports peer mentoring and coaching as well as practice sharing.

When will the COP take place?

  • The first CoP Meeting took place on 27th July: UK time 9.30am – 10.30 / Vietnamese time 15.30 – 16.30. It was an online meeting which included a Padlet activity- Sharing images of Life as a woman leader. The link to the Padlet is here and the notes from this meeting are here.
  • The second CoP Meeting took place online on 21st September 2022 and this included a discussion of leadership styles and the notes are here.
  • The third CoP Meeting  was a hybrid face to face meeting and online meeting which took place in Vietnam on 18th October 2022. The invitation for this meeting can be found here. During this meeting we continued to add to the Padlet. We used material to construct our leadership journeys using the river metaphor. We then reflected on the themes from our stories with those emanating from the literature. Julia Everitt presented an update about the literature review which can be found here. We discussed the ethnography and are encouraging anyone interested to contact Amanda.French@BCU.ac.uk
  • And then bi-monthly….

How can I join the CoP?

  • If you would like to join the EnPOWER Community of Practice please get in touch via French@bcu.ac.uk
  • We look forward to hearing from you!