Practitioner enquiry tip of the week: supporting practitioner enquiry communities. I often get asked whether you have to be an 'expert', whatever that is, to support colleagues who are undertaking practitioner enquiry for the first time /1

Firstly, in practitioner enquiry there are few answers,just good questions. No one is definitive expert. We're all trying to find most sensible answers to own questions. However as we share thinking about what worked (pedagogy/ methodology) we'll build community expertise /2

Secondly, there are as many unanswered questions about running PE communities, as there are about classrooms (and many are remarkably similar). So, if you're coordinating a PE community, there's no need to pretend you have all answers. Indeed be honest about all the questions /3

Treat your role as leader/ mentor/ coach within the PE group as your own practitioner enquiry. Be explicit you're trying things out (different ways to get people together, to facilitate sharing, to explore what worked etc.), share your potential answers with the community. /4

The best support for practitioner enquiry comes from people also steeped in practitioner enquiry process. People enquiring alongside their colleagues, prepared to share their metacognition, share successful (& not so successful) learning and role model process (warts & all) /5