Communities of practice change practice - but not always, nor easily

There are conflicting views in the literature about the value of communities of practice in integrating work and learning. The earlier confidence about their value as articulated by USA researchers such as Cohen and Prusak (2001) and Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) is now being challenged by research, for instance from the United Kingdom (e.g. Hodkinson and Hodkinson 2004) and Europe (e.g. Huysman 2004). Communities of practice are defined as groups of people joined by a common interest about which they wish to communicate regularly. Such communities were initially viewed as a breakthrough in changing practice within the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia (Mitchell, Wood and Young 2001; Mitchell 2002;). Subsequent research (Mitchell 2003; Young and Mitchell 2003a, 2003b) identified a strong fit between the methodology and the VET sector. This VET body of research highlighted the value of communities in focusing participants on their practice: that is, their habits, customs, techniques, approaches and beliefs as VET practitioners. However, the research also acknowledged the complex challenges in attempting to change practice within communities of practice - practice doesn’t always change, and if it does, the change is not easy to bring about. By focusing on findings from more recent communities of practice functioning in VET (Mitchell et al. 2005), this paper builds on the participative evaluation by Mitchell, Young and McKenna (e.g. Young & Mitchell 2003a, 2003b; Mitchell et al. 2004; Mitchell et al. 2005) of more than one hundred communities of practice formed from 2001-2004. The Australian VET research conducted over those four years consistently demonstrates that communities of practice are powerful mechanisms for integrating work and learning. However, social learning that occurs in communities of practice may not always translate into organisational learning, unless facilitated effectively.

Published abstract.

A list of the collected available papers from this conference may be found at TD/TNC 86.451; a list of available PowerPoint presentations may be found at TD/TNC 86.452; available papers are indexed from TD/TNC 86.453 to TD/TNC 86.475.

There are conflicting views in the literature about the value of communities of practice in integrating work and learning. The earlier confidence about their value as articulated by USA researchers such as Cohen and Prusak (2001) and Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) is now being challenged by research, for instance from the United Kingdom (e.g. Hodkinson and Hodkinson 2004) and Europe (e.g. Huysman 2004). Communities of practice are defined as groups of people joined by a common interest about which they wish to communicate regularly. Such communities were initially viewed as a ...  [+] Show more