The challenges of building an academic community of practice: an Australian case study

Abstract

While the concept of learning communities is now widely known and generally endorsed in higher education, there are significant challenges in relation to their implementation within the current Australian higher education context. We argue that a community of practice model proposed by Wenger (1998) can provide a framework for the building of successful academic communities of practice. The model contains three fundamental elements - a domain of knowledge that creates a common ground and sense of common identity, a community of people who care about the domain and create the social fabric of learning, and a shared practice that the community develops to be effective in its domain. In this case study the community provides a location for individual academics to focus on teaching and learning against a background of tensions in the current Australian higher education environment. In addition, communities of practice create a space for safe reflection on practice, as the challenges of mass education, such as increasing diversity in student cohorts, are best met by collaborative effort. Communities of practice provide a context for sustained professional conversations around identified domain and practice issues. This paper presents a discussion of the application of Wenger’s model in an academic community, and the challenges and successes of that process to inform the implementation of communities of practice in the Australian tertiary context.