Communities of Practice

The idea that we learn with experienced others who are pursuing a similar purpose to our own easily resonates with most practitioners’ experience of their professional development. In Lave and Wenger’s theory our professional development journey is also a movement from the periphery to the centre of a practice domain as we become more confident that our practice is congruent with the expectations of our peers and can contribute to the shared goals.

This perspective on professional development can be helpful in informing how we think about developing ourselves as professionals as well as how we can support the development of others. It has been readily adopted in the corporate sector to help manage professional knowledge in large organizations and to encourage innovation. It is increasingly being applied in the public sector to help workers respond to change together.

New communication technologies make it more and more possible for professionals to connect with peers with similar interests and challenges - not only in their own local context but across the country, across organizations and even internationally. There is a recognition that such connections can not only support personal learning but also increase our collective knowledge of practice.

In the CLD sector in Scotland, this model is influencing the design of new programmes of professional learning – for example in the TQAL project which explicitly aimed to foster the development of a community of practice of Adult Literacies practitioners across Scotland. Evaluation of the programmme ‘suggests that participation on TQAL has generated an enthusiasm and a greater sense of connectedness which extends beyond attendance at the course. This was evident by discussion of a more discernible community of practice amongst practitioners and key informants which was cited as weak or mainly existing amongst non practitioners prior to TQAL’ (Wilson et al, 2011, p.15).

In the formal education sector, the idea has led to an approach to professional learning in ‘learning communities’, where the emphasis is on teachers coming together to explore new ideas and ways of working and sharing their experiences of experimenting with these in their own school context.