Personal transformation, powered by community: Reflections on collective learning

Co-author of a new Teaching Academy guide explores how collective learning starts when students embrace intellectual risks and welcome uncertainty.

Raymond Williams, the Welsh cultural scholar and my all-time favourite author, defines community as a "warmly persuasive term" that describes both present and alternative set of relationships between people.[1] I am particularly struck by Williams' description of community as warm as we are reminded daily that community is far from a cozy safe space for many people.

As teachers we are responsible for fostering community in our classrooms as we only learn from and with each other. This work is difficult and assailed by transactional approaches to teaching and learning that leave no room for self-discovery and transformation. Many of our classrooms have turned into places where we exchange knowledge for credits. Our assessments often favour individual performance over collaborative learning processes.

This challenge can be addressed. The new Teaching Academy's guide Building Community Through Collaborative Learning (2025) documents classes that have successfully transformed into communities through meaningful collaboration between students and instructors. The nine chapters introduce us to experiences of collaboration that are far from linear — stories of co-creating and changing with others. These accounts reveal that community forms when we become vulnerable and invest ourselves in open dialogue with others. It is only through this willingness to be changed by others that we engage in truly transformative learning.

Anyone who has collaborated with others knows the process is often challenging and even frustrating. However, the uncertainty inherent in collaboration offers something refreshing in our cultural moment. In a society that often demands easy and quick solutions, collaborative learning asks us to navigate complexity.

One thing remains certain: we need more messy, unsettling, and transformative collaboration to foster community in our classrooms. This means designing teaching and learning practices that encourage students to take intellectual risks, welcome uncertainty as part of the journey, and engage in collaborative learning. Let's embrace this work together.

[1] Williams, R. (1976). Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. Oxford University Press.