Supporting Communities of Practice in Vocational Education and Training

There is a wide appreciation that social learning takes place through interaction in communities of practice. Many projects are seeking to develop such communities and to use ICT to support communities of practice. Yet the experience of these communities sis often less than overwhelming. As Wilfred Rubens has said, “If our communities shall succeed, we need to create ownership, passion and a sense of urgency."

This raises many more questions about the nature of communities of practice and issues we need to resolve in a practical and applied sense.

Ettiene Wenger defines Communities of practice as follows:

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

He goes on to qualify this with three further 'critical characteristics':

The domain:

A community of practice ... has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people.

The community:

In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. A website in itself is not a community of practice.

The practice:

Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction.