Communities of Practice

Virtual Communities

As the new communication technologies become central to working life, they are being exploited to make access to practice and learning communities more available to all, regardless of the constraints of their local context. Online ‘networks’ and ‘communities of practice’, such as CoPAL, are proliferating, affording us the opportunity to share and learn with colleagues at a distance.

But are online ‘networks’ and ‘communities of practice’ the same thing? They can be. A network can become a community of practice if it not only allows you to connect with others but also enables people to learn from one another and for each person to contribute to learning about the shared practice. In ‘learning communities’, the focus is even more explicitly on learning and innovating together.

Local Communities

Although the term is currently at risk of becoming applied only to virtual networks, an approach to professional development based on the concept of communities of practice would also take account of learning together through social processes at work and in localities. For example the idea of legitimate peripheral participation, central to Lave and Wenger’ s research, could inform local approaches to induction; it provides a rationale for job shadowing and mentoring schemes.

Drawing upon this model to consider how we support the professional development of others might lead us to question how we can help colleagues access not only formal training but also the informal spaces for professional discussion. It is often the chance encounter or conversation at the photocopier or over a tea break which can set us thinking differently about what we are doing. But does everyone have access to these social situations? Is there time in the working week to swop the stories which help us reflect on and learn from what we are doing?

Wenger describes the characteristics of a vital community of practice. How many of these characteristics are evident in your practice context? Could more of these developmental processes be encouraged?

Communities of practice then, is a useful way to think about CLD. Our own and others. We can ask ourselves where are we already learning through engaging with like-minded others? Are there other ‘communities of practice’ – including those online - that we could participate in for our continuing professional development. Can we nurture existing communities and make practice development a more explicit aim within them? Can we create an environment in which communities grow and are cultivated?

As Wenger asserts, ‘communities of practice’ are not new. But paying more attention to them may make them a richer source of continuing professional development.