Desire Lines in Open Space:: An Exploration of the TeachMeet Phenomenon

Abstract

Desire Lines in Open Space :: An Exploration of the TeachMeet Phenomenon Margaret Mary Amond Abstract TeachMeet is a recent phenomenon in which informal gatherings are arranged by teachers in order to share and discuss practice with peers in a convivial setting. The research aim was to explore the essence, nature and niche of TeachMeet. A review of literature in the domains of professional development, leaderless organisations, and TeachMeet, led to research questions addressing four areas - characteristic elements of TeachMeet; motivations of participants; perspectives on its situation in the landscape of professional learning; and consideration of the future of TeachMeet. The methodological approach was Sensemaking, combining principles of strengths-seeking Appreciative Inquiry with insider-mediated Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A mix of methods - observation (n = 15), questionnaire (n = 302), interview (n = 15) - was used to gather data from events and participants who attend, present at, and organise them. Findings of the research shed light on what gives life to events; the profiles, dispositions, perspectives and group experiential themes reflecting what matters to participants. Vital to events is the non-hierarchical Open Space dynamic, with participants from all levels and sectors of education seeking to improve, willing to share, and bring the TeachMeet opportunity to their peers. Group experiential themes generated in analysis find TeachMeet to be of personal, purposeful, practical, and political importance for participants. Significant in the findings is a dilemma regarding the niche of TeachMeet, a phenomenon where many participants appreciate the freedom from formal structure and hierarchy which is at odds with the constraints and demands of formal professional learning within which others may seek to situate it. The research concludes TeachMeet to be a social, open and humble phenomenon found in the informal intersections of teacher learning, evolving through the agency of participants enacting desires which reflect the impact of their experiences of TeachMeet.