Applying Theory to Inform Capability Development

Author(s):  
Mambo G. Mupepi ◽  
Patience Taruwinga ◽  
Sylvia C. Mupepi

This chapter describes the deliberate making of a community of practice to advance specialization in divided labor and structuring a successful enterprise. A knowledge network is characterized by mutual engagement in a joint enterprise that gives rise to a shared repertoire of knowledge, skillsets, and practices. The division of labor is identified to enable the novice to develop the proficiencies required for specialty to happen. Bootstrapping and other techniques are applied to replicate the performance required in making effective specialists. A conclusion is drawn taking the position that the centricity of an epistemic community is the locus of control of the job, individual, and team; additionally, it is the only organization that can authenticate the practices necessary to boost productivity.

Author(s):  
Mambo Governor Mupepi ◽  
Sylvia C Mupepi

This article describes the deliberate making of a knowledge community to advance specialization in divided labor and structuring a successful enterprise. A knowledge network is characterized by mutual engagement in a joint enterprise that gives rise to a shared repertoire of knowledge, skillsets, and practices. The division of labor is identified to enable the novice to develop the proficiencies required for specialty to happen. Bootstrapping and other techniques are applied to replicate the performance required in making effective specialists. A conclusion is drawn taking the position that the centricity of an epistemic community is the locus of control of the job, individual, and team; additionally, it is the only organization that can authenticate the practices necessary to boost productivity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 262
Author(s):  
Faisal Al-Maamari

Setting, disseminating and applying assessment standards are part of university academic programmes of study. Nowadays, assessment is increasingly viewed from a social practice perspective, and so doing entails exploring how the quality of assessment is shaped by interaction and co-participation with different communities of practice. Therefore, based on this perspective, the study reported here aimed to examine the assessment policies and practices of laboratory report writing of first year students in credit-bearing, English for Special Purposes programmes at a university in the Sultanate of Oman. Interviews of programme administrators and the instructors plus institutional and programme documents were examined to investigate these assessment policies and practices. The programme administrators were asked about how they planned the written assessment in their programmes, and the instructors were asked about their experiences of these assessments. The data were then analysed thematically using community of practice framework, namely in relation to (1) a shared repertoire of communal resources, (2) mutual engagement, and (3) a sense of joint enterprise. It was found that instead of community of practice, there were (sub)communities of practices wherein interaction, negotiation and communication amongst members and non-members were punctuated by control, power and autonomy, all working with the aim of narrowing the range between the personal goals of the academic and the communal goals of the institution. The overarching conclusion is that in their assessment practices, the two instructional programmes exhibited varying degrees of community of practice based on the above three attributes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian W. King

AbstractThis study examines the language-driven aspects of the formation of a classroom-based community of practice (CoP), placing emphasis on ways in which researchers can verify the status of observed practices. Discourse analysis is reinforced by such an evidence-based understanding of the social milieu of a research site. When determining whether an aggregate of people is functioning as a CoP, however, the nature of the measuring stick is a vital question. When institutional forces have brought a group of participants together, how can an observer verify empirically the dynamic development of mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire? In a sample case study, representative features outlined by Wenger (1998:130–31) are identified, and their emergence traced, via analysis of ethnographic fieldnotes and audio recordings. These features provide evidence of the development of localised practices (i.e. ways of doing grounded in this community) as distinct from more widely recognisable practices. Identifying the difference increases the likelihood that results of discourse analysis can be useful to educators. (Community of practice, discourse analysis, nexus of practices, warranting)*


2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-132
Author(s):  
Valéria C. Santos ◽  
Agnaldo Arroio

The concept of communities of practice can be used in different contexts, included the educational context. The development of communities of practice where pre-service teachers work together, refine their practices and learn is a good training for these future teachers. Since communities of practice help teachers learn about teaching and improve their practices, this study aim to characterize the project PIBID of chemistry carried out at the University of São Paulo as a community of practice. On the first half of 2013 the PIBID project included 12 pre-service teachers who attended weekly meetings. These meetings consisted of theoretical training about the use of visual tools in teaching and other concepts about education and meetings to plan activities and classes about topics of chemistry to be applied in a public school at the city of São Paulo, Brazil. During these meetings was possible to notice that the pre-service teachers were engaged in a community of practice, demonstrating the three characteristics emphasized by Wenger (2008): mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. Thus the project PIBID of chemistry could be characterized as a community of practice. Furthermore, it was noticed that the community helps in the training of pre-service teachers, since it is providing support to them learn about teaching in practice and implement their knowledge. Key words: chemistry teaching, community of practice, pre-service teacher training.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsi-Marja Heikkinen ◽  
Raisa Ahtiainen ◽  
Elina Fonsén

<p>In this article we focus on the perceptions of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) directors, leaders on leadership through the concept of community of practice and examine how it could be applied in the Finnish context during times of change. Data on the perceptions of 15 ECEC centre directors were collected via a focus group interview. The study employed qualitative content analysis design. The results indicate that the formal leader has an important role in leading the community. Moreover, building flexible leadership structures and supporting all community members in developing the shared pedagogical leadership are the building blocks of the future leadership as a joint enterprise. </p>


Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110552
Author(s):  
Anu Kantola ◽  
Anu A Harju

In this article, we examine how journalists address and tackle online harassment by connective practices that involve joint action with peers and editors that we find are particularly effective in addressing the emotional effects of harassment. Theoretically, we bridge community of practice research with theories of emotional labour to develop a novel perspective to examine online harassment. Drawing on 22 interviews with Finnish journalists, we find three categories of connective practices that are particularly effective in tackling harassment: (1) supportive connection between the journalist and the editor; (2) shared collegial practices among peers in the newsrooms and (3) emotional engagement among peers outside the newsroom. All three categories illustrate how journalists as a community of practice develop new practices through dynamic processes innovation, improvisation, trial and error, reciprocal learning and mutual engagement. Importantly, emotional labour forms an important dimension of these practices as the journalists jointly address and tackle the emotional effects of harassment. We posit that the effectiveness of these connective practices largely stems from their ability to provide emotional support. While addressing feelings of fear, anger and shame, these shared practices also help consolidate the newly acquired knowledge and the professional identity under attack. Finally, we offer recommendations for newsrooms and journalists on how to collectively counter harassment and develop policies to address it.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002248712096495
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Schiera

The Core Practices Movement (CPM) and Social Justice Teacher Education (SJTE) represent two communities of practice within which novices develop as professional educators. However, there is little dialogue about how they might collaborate to develop novice social justice educators, and the critiques and recommendations that do cross movements originate from divergent theoretical starting points. Possibilities for convergence within the learning theories that underpin CPM and SJTE are explored, examining how social learning theories might be infused with, and enveloped within, critical learning theories. This article thus re-presents teacher education as a “community of praxis.” Within each of its three hybrid dimensions—a shared repertoire of practice/praxis, mutual engagement of vertical and horizontal expertise, and joint enterprise of professional and political aims—possibilities for developing novice social justice educators are described, and tensions at the intersection of justice and practice in teacher education are explored.


2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine McLoughlin ◽  
Mark J.W. Lee

To support students undertaking an initial teacher training program, a communities of practice model (Wenger, 1998) was implemented, supported by a social software-based technology framework, to enable mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. Participants formed peer-to-peer mentoring relationships, creating and sharing web log (blog) entries and voice recordings of critical incidents while on their practicum. Data from the students’ discourse was analyzed to explore issues and patterns that were indicators of a learning community. This data, together with data collected from post-practicum focus group discussions in which students reflected on the benefits of these media for peer mentoring and support, attests to the relevance and effectiveness of the adopted approach to developing a socio-professional community to support the development of pre-service teachers. The authors believe that best outcomes are achieved when activities are structured, when students are adequately trained in using the technologies, and when instructors or experts are available to scaffold reflection processes as the need arises.


Author(s):  
Márcia Cristina De Costa Trindade Cyrino ◽  
Loreni Aparecida Ferreira Baldini

O objetivo do presente artigo é identificar as ações da formadora e a dinâmica de uma Comunidade de Prática de Formação de Professores de Matemática - CoP- FoPMat que contribuíram para constituição/mobilização de Conhecimentos Tecnológicos e Pedagógicos do Conteúdo – TPACK. Para tanto, foi realizada uma investigação qualitativa de cunho interpretativos da prática dessa comunidade no empreendimento de discutir modos de integrar o software GeoGebra no ensino de matemática. Os resultados evidenciaram que as ações da formadora e a dinâmica da CoP promoveram o engajamento mútuo de seus membros no processo de formação, a constituição de um repertório específico que fomentou a construção/mobilização de conhecimentos necessários para integração tecnologias digitais no ensino de Matemática.The purpose of this article is to identify the actions of the professor and the dynamics of a Community of Practice of Mathematics Teachers Education - CoP-FoPMat that contributed to the constitution/mobilization of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge - TPACK. Therefore, a qualitative research of interpretation nature of practice episodes of this community in the project to discuss ways of integrating GeoGebra software in mathematics teaching was done. The results showed that the actions of the professor and dynamics of CoP promoted the mutual engagement of its members in the education process, the establishment of a specific repertoire that fomented the construction/mobilization expertise to integrate digital technologies in mathematics education.


Author(s):  
Enrique Murillo

Virtual Communities of Practice (CoPs) that are launched and managed by organizations have been amply documented in KM literature, but extra-organizational virtual CoPs have received little coverage. This study performs an ethnography of an extra-organizational Usenet-based CoP of tax professionals, using a longitudinal Social Network Analysis to map a tight-knit long-lived community and identify its members. The result is a naturalistic description of the ways in which the Wenger dimensions of Mutual engagement, Joint enterprise and Shared repertoire manifest themselves in day-to-day interactions in an online CoP. The study highlights how energetic voluntary participation by members produces a successful long-lived virtual CoP, even in the absence of organizational KM or IT resources. For independent professionals, extra-organizational virtual CoPs can provide a powerful support group and the means to constantly update their personal competence. For organizations intent on developing formalized CoPs, these results are a useful reminder that member commitment is the ultimate driver of a CoP’s success.


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