Using group dynamics as an umbrella term for overlapping literatures on community, cooperative, and collaborative practices, I introduce the concept of PCOIz which might help teachers to better conceptualize their classes and the time-frame influences on their students. I position PCOIz as complementary to but different from communities of practice and imagined communities, and in some ways overlapping, with an emphasis on imagining and re-imagining. Using the Wicked Eyebrows figure below, we look at how teachers can systematically organize activities to look at students’ pasts, presents, and futures. I also present several mixed method studies done in Japan which indicate that PCOIz, when well developed, can nurture the aspirations, resilience, learning strategies, beliefs, motivations, and possible selves of its members through critical dialogue and collaboration.
