Communities of Practice, Identity, Fostering Peer-to-Peer Learning and INformal Knowledge Sharing in the Work Place

by Hara, Noriko

• ISBN13: 9783540854234
• ISBN10: 3540854231
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

The book offers two themes: one is about Communities of Practice (CoPs) and learning, the other is about social informatics approaches. First, in order to facilitate designing effective learning environments both online and offline, this book calls attention to the importance of CoPs to facilitate informal learning as part of professional development. Communities of Practice are informal networks that support a group of practitioners to develop a shared meaning and engage in knowledge building among the members. The concept of CoPs is rooted in situated cognition (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989; Lave, 1988) and the socio-cultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978).The book examines how people share and construct their knowledge by using case studies of public defender's offices. Despite strong interests among practitioners and scholars, empirical studies of CoPs are sparse. Drawing on theories from situated cognition and social informatics, this book investigates what constitutes a community of practice and how members of the community create a shared meaning in workplaces with and without IT.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
ICT Use to Support Learning	p. 2
Communities of Practice	p. 2
The Fieldwork	p. 5
The Plan of this Book	p. 6
Theoretical Foundation	p. 7
Introduction	p. 7
Research in Cognate Areas Relevant to the Topic	p. 8
Situated Cognition	p. 8
Organizational Learning	p. 9
Communities of Practice	p. 11
Knowledge Management	p. 16
Information and Communication Technologies	p. 21
Summary of What is Known and Unknown	p. 22
Ethnographic Accounts of a Community of Practice in Square County	p. 25
Public Defenders	p. 25
Site Description	p. 26
What it is like to be a Public Defender	p. 28
Public Defenders' Daily Practices	p. 28
Nature of Public Defenders' Job	p. 32
Two Public Defenders' Trials	p. 33
Alisha's Trial	p. 34
Nick's Trial	p. 39
Comparison of Two Trials (Commentary)	p. 44
Characteristics of a Community of Practice in Square County	p. 47
Introduction	p. 47
Autonomous Learners: Striving to Become Better Public Defenders	p. 49
Formal and Informal Learning Opportunities	p. 51
Practical Knowledge versus Book Knowledge	p. 53
Collective Knowledge Building	p. 56
Professional Pride	p. 60
Adversity	p. 62
Client (Dis)Satisfaction	p. 63
Criteria for Success	p. 67
Commentary	p. 70
Individualized Work Style and Personality	p. 70
Unique Culture of the Office	p. 73
Supportive Culture	p. 73
Leadership and Autonomy	p. 75
Reality of the Supportive Culture	p. 77
Commentary	p. 77
Communities of Practice and Information Technologies in the Circle County Public Defender's Office	p. 79
Site Description	p. 80
IT as Support for Practice in the Circle County Public Defender's Office	p. 81
Differences between Younger Attorneys and Experienced Attorneys	p. 83
Younger Attorneys, Communities of Practice, and IT Support of Identity Formation	p. 85
Younger Attorneys in Communities of Practice	p. 85
Isolation, Overload, and Work Specialization	p. 88
Professional Identity among Younger Attorneys	p. 90
Younger Attorneys' Heavy Reliance on IT	p. 91
IT Supports Practice, but Not Identity Formation	p. 92
Commentary	p. 93
Online Communities of Practice: Beyond Organizational Boundaries	p. 95
Online Community of Practice among Public Defenders	p. 95
Online Communities of Practice for Other Professions	p. 99
Sites Descriptions	p. 99
Types of Knowledge	p. 100
Types of Knowledge Shared in Online Communities of Practice	p. 101
What Makes Knowledge Sharing Sustainable in Online Communities of Practice?	p. 104
Relationships Among the Six Factors	p. 108
Commentary	p. 109
Toward an Understanding of Communities of Practice	p. 113
Characteristics of Communities of Practice	p. 113
Social Construction of Knowledge in Communities of Practice: Three Kinds of Knowledge	p. 113
Why it Does Not Support Identity Formation	p. 116
Professional Socialization and Identity	p. 116
Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice	p. 117
Communities of Practice & IT Integration	p. 119
Differences between Online and Face-to-Face Communities of Practice	p. 120
Implications of this Study for Further Research and Development	p. 121
Implications for Education	p. 121
Implications for Information Science	p. 121
Implications for Communities of Practice	p. 122
Epilogue	p. 123
Cast of Characters	p. 125
Types of Activities	p. 127
References	p. 129
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