Professional Networks and Communities of Practice

“Communities of Practice are 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.” - Etienne Wenger

Developing networks and communities of practice (CoP) is integral to fostering knowledge-sharing and professional growth in higher education. Communities thrive on passion, and die from lack of it. They depend on members to be enthusiastic about and committed to issues around which the community is formed. Communities exist when members find value in participating and are willing to share their knowledge, ideas and time.

There are several fundemental differences between CoP and traditional teams found in the workplace:

Community of Practice	The Traditional Team
Relationships are formed around a common interest or practice	Relationships are often dictated by management
Leaderships is determined by the community and rotates based on skill and experience	Leadership is assigned
Activities, goals, agendas and processes are determined by the members	Teams are assigned specific goals and guidelines and work with processes that are defined by the organization
Communities are generally not responsible to anyone other than their own members	Teams account to management for their activities
	(Etienne Wenger)

To learn more about CoP and professional networks, visit the link(s) below or see our page on reading circles.

		Communities of practice: a brief introduction Ettienne Wenger
A site that introduces the concept of communities of practice, discusses what it looks like and provides further links.   Temporary Internationalizing Curriculum and Teaching Documents Learning Outcomes Sharing_Hunches_VF-1-1 TRU GraphicOrgVF TEAMS Diversity TRU_Culture_ClassroomVF-1