References

693 Action Research Project - References and Links


 * Community of Practice**
 * Theoretical Framework
 * Examples from other CoPs
 * Fostering a CoP
 * Growth and long-term sustainability

From Etienne Wenger - Introduction [] > Wenger, 1998 p. 4-5 Four interrelated parts of social learning: p. 73: Dimensions of practice as the source of coherence of a community p. 76 Having a **shared goal** is an essential dimension of a CoP p. xx Infrastructures that allows for the identify formation of learners: (i.e., these are dimensions of the community, design for these things) See for excerpt:http://cct-693-mbl.wikispaces.com/Fostering+a+CoP
 * Theoretical Framework**
 * Wenger, McDermott, Snyder definition of **CoP**: " Communities of practice are s “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (2002, p. 7). "; by interacting on a regular basis, they deepen their knowledge and expertise on the topic area
 * They have three elements: a //domain// of knowledge (that members identify with and are committed to; shared understanding that fosters joint enterprise and identity; a collective competence), a //community// (where they interact, engage, and learn together; shared activities that foster trust and relationships), a //practice// (they develop a shared repertoire and resources by sharing stories, experiences, cases, problem solving; this serves as foundation for future learning)
 * CoP was termed by Lave and Wenger, while studying apprenticeship as a model for learning, whereby learning takes place mostly with journeymen and more advanced apprentices through complex set of social relationships.
 * Characteristics of CoPs make them beneficial for organizations, but can also challenge the traditional hierarchy w/in organizations: stewarding knowledge, autonomy, practitioner-orientation, informality, crossing boundaries are also characteristics that make them a challenge for traditional hierarchical organizations.
 * In education, learning is a means to end and a product. Changing the learning theory in schools is a much deeper transformation that say adding a layer of complexity to an organization; everything services the learning that takes place in the real world--schools are part of the broader learning system.
 * CoPs affect educational practices along three dimensions: internally, e.g., grounding school learning in practice via subject-based CoPs; externally, connecting with the experiences of students; and over the lifetime of students, serving lifelong learning needs that sustain their interest beyond school.
 * 1) practice, where learning occurs
 * 2) community, among members who have shared competent (varying) of a domain
 * 3) meaning, learning as experienced is meaningful
 * 4) identity, as a result, such a member develops an identity
 * **//mutual engagement//** of participants, organized around what they do (function); self-selected members
 * enabling engagement - while not as instrumental or visible "community maintenance" is a subtle, intrinsic part that makes practice possible
 * diversity and partiality - members find unique place, gain a unique identity that is integrated and refined through engagement in practice, but they do not fuse; the partiality of mutual engagement is both an asset and limitation of CoPs
 * (complex) mutual relationships - sustained personal engagement
 * how it functions as a social entity bound by its members
 * //a **j**//**//oint enterprise//** that keeps a community together; what it's about as understood and (re)negotiated by members (not management, like in project teams)
 * an enterprise is a resource of sense-making, coordination, and mutual engagement
 * a //negotiated// enterprise - collective process of negotiation
 * an indigenous enterprise - negotiated response to situation defined by participants; outside forces/authority is mediated by production of community's practice
 * a regime of (mutual) accountability - integral part of practice, negotiated interpretation of actions that are accountable to enterprise
 * **//shared repertoire//** - what the community has produced or adopted over time, such as routines and artifacts.
 * negotiation - history and ambiguity
 * shared histories of interpretation (of artifacts or actions) are recognizable and can be re-negotiated; they can be resources in production of new meanings;
 * ambiguity is obstacle but yet inherent in our work; can be situated in history of mutual engagement to yield negotiation
 * shared meaning is not precondition or outcome for CoP; beliefs can be addressed/resolved only when they interfere with engagement
 * **facilities of engagement**
 * **facilities of imagination**
 * **facilities of alignment**

- existing knowledge and experience of participants is at the center of process of dialogue and collaborative inquiry that can lead to transformative learning creating new identities and practices

Wenger, E. "Learning as a social system." [Published in the "Systems Thinker," June 1998] [] Older models of knowledge management used formal systems to capture knowledge, such as databases. These formal structures do not reflect the dynamic nature of knowledge and how it is created and used.

CoP's are essentially self-organizing systems -- they are a shift from the disintegrated 'working in silos' mentality of many organizations, i.e., defining your work by project, interest, or functional unit, to focus on the doing -- the practice of people learning together. CoPs can cross organizational boundaries, so membership is more flexible than a traditional organizational group, and they have a "permeable periphery" meaning there are more opportunities for people to learn regardless of their status (e.g., outsiders). A __CoP is defined by knowledge, not task,__ and they are kept together by the shared learning and interest of its members. The __life cycle is defined by its value to members__ rather than a project-based timeline. A CoP also produces a shared practice by way of its members' collective process of learning.

CoPs have become increasingly important in today's global knowledge-based economy because it values knowledge; "knowledge is 'owned' in practice" (p. 5). In regards to the creation, accumulation, and diffusion of knowledge, CoPs serve several functions in an organization: CoPs can function within an organization--they structure learning by way of the knowledge they develop at their //core// and the interactions they foster at their //boundaries.// It's important to attend to both the core (the center of expertise) and the boundaries, to ensure they are both active -- that activities at the boundaries can renew learning and prevent the expertise within CoPs from becoming insular. It's also important to know how CoPs evolve and interact over time within organizations. Technology and other organizational infrastructures in the CoPs can promote, support and leverage them.
 * Are nodes for exchange and interpretation of information; their shared understanding is an advantageous for disseminating information across organizational boundaries
 * Retain knowledge in "living" or active ways, preserving the tacitness of knowledge that formal systems cannot, which is ideal for newcomers
 * Steward competencies to sustain and drive innovation; members invest thier professional identities and take on responsibilities as part of a collaborative inquiry committed to new developments and ideas in their respective field--this is very valuable for them.
 * Provide homes for identities, learners have a sense of their own identity in the community -- rather than the identify of the corporation or organization.

While CoPs do emerge naturally, __organizations can influence their development, through seeding and nurturing__. Recognized experts or internal leaders need to be involved, and they can provide leadership that is inspirational, daily classificatory (documenters), interpersonal, boundary (someone who connects to other communities), institutional, or cutting-edge. The leadership must be instrinsically legitimate in the community. They must work from inside the community, not just as an outside designer. Ways to nurture CoPs in organizations include:
 * Legitimizing participation - acceptance and valuing w/in the org.
 * Negotiating their strategic context - longer-lived communities for maintaining expertise, "double-knit orgs"
 * Being attuned to real practice - leveraging what people are already doing - potential that already exists
 * Fine-tuning the org.- factors that foster or inhibit CoPs
 * Providing support - resources such as outside experts, time and space that can benefit CoPs - e.g., a mngt. group w/in org. might address this.

//“It is virtually impossible to create and sustain over time conditions for productive learning for students when they do not exist for teachers,”// noted Sarason (1990, p. 45). Sarason, S. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform: Can we change course before it‟s too late? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

//Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice,// Eds. Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble [] Introduction, Volume 1 Volume 1, Chapter 12 Adopting Communities of Practice as a Framework for Teacher Development Author: Rana Yildirim
 * CoP gained prominence in Wenger and Lave's study of situated learning - learning "on the job" as apprentice where acquiring knowledge is a social process
 * Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) - the learning occurs as people engage in the community activities, it's the process by which a newcomer/novice learns from the group and becomes a full participant: legitimization -- power and authority relations in the community -- peripherality - the individual's social peripherality in relation to the community, which is dependent on their history of and expectations for participation and interaction w/ the community.
 * LPP: type of situated learning, process reinforces that learning is social vs psychological only
 * e.g., newcomers initially learn from the peripheral then shift to the center as they become more competent
 * Mutual engagement binds members of CoP together as social entity (Wenger, 1998)
 * CoPs produce a Shared repertoire of resources; repository can be explicit, like written files, or implicit, like procedures, policies, rituals, etc.
 * Common ground (Clark & Brennan, 1991) - information that can be shared; members will share common background or common interest.
 * Common purpose or goal that motivates or drives members (vs. an external force)
 * CoPs evolve because of relationships of its members or common interest of the group.
 * Relationships are central to CoPs, they are key to trust and identity in a CoP; CoP __becomes legitimate as informal relationships develop__. - language, esp. storytelling, places important role in learning and identify formation (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
 * __Narration or story telling__ is useful in knowledge sharing and creation
 * CoPs can be informally or formally constituted; most are the former, and membership is voluntary
 * Brown and Duguid's Networks of Practice proposes that networks can extend beyond the organization where the individual is situated--the flow of information exists, through the "surrounding knowledge ecology", but the links may be weaker

Volume 2, Introduction Wenger notes importance of boundaries between communities and notes that __boundary objects__ describe how artifacts that have been produced by one CoP can act as link to other geographically distinct group. (Wenger, 1998, p. 106)
 * This seems important to my project -- how curriculum materials or teacher-developed lessons can serve as boundary object between disparate communities.

Volume 2, Chapter 1 Designing for Growth: Enabling Communities of Practice to Develop and Extend their Work Online; Authors: Melissa Koch and Judith Fusco

Volume 2, Chapter 4 Virtual Problem-based Learning Communities of Practice for Teachers and Academic Developers: An Irish Higher Education Perspective Author: Roisin Donnelly
 * There has been a "paradigm shift" in PD whereby teachers collaborate to embrace educational change; CoPs can be "powerful catalysts to enable teachers to improve their practice" (Schalger, Fusco, & Schank, 2002, p. 129)
 * Grabinger and Dunlap (2000) argue that active social interaction and exchange of ideas with learners and with the facilitator is key in online learning environments; without the social interaction, learners' social and cognitive involvement is lessened.

[] Google book

Professional Learning Communities** "What is a professional learning community" Richard DuFour Education Leadership, May 2004 What are big ideas of PLCs? Knowledge Networks and CoPs, Allee (2000) //OD Practitioner// Unlike online networks or groups are not CoPs; they have no joint enterprise to keep them going; CoPs emerge in the space between knowledge networks and project teams, esp. when engaged in similar work/tasks - there's a need to share knowledge - this can lead to community formation, when people identify new ways to collaborate What conditions foster their emergence? How can we create an environment to support them? In business,CoPs are vehicle for increasing access to expertise across the company and support innovation, problem solving, retention, etc.
 * Other pertinent research**
 * They ensure that students learn; the focus is on learning not teaching; e.g, this commitment must be congruent with strategies to support struggling students
 * They create structures to support collaboration; this is characterized by systematic process by which teachers work together to analyze and improve classroom practice -- they engage in collaborative conversations and use data to guide their work
 * They are results-oriented, accountable for results that drive continued improvement
 * I think PLCs are derivative of CoPs so I'm sticking with the CoP literature only.

CoP lit review - rooted in Bandura, social learning theory: learning through observation and modeling of behaviors, actions, attitudes of others; Vygotsky, role of social interaction in cognitive development, and Lave, situated learning

http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper28/paper28b.html http://origin-www.fastcompany.com/node/26238/print

"Using a Wiki in a CoP to Strengthen K-12 Education" []