Implementing Communities of Practice in Higher Education: Dreamers and Schemers

In this edited collection, the authors pick up the communities of practice (CoP) approach of sharing practice in their reflection on the experience of taking their CoP vision from a dream to reality. Their stories articulate the vision, the passion and the challenge of working within and/or changing existing institutional culture and practice. The book discusses strategies that worked and considers the lessons learnt to inspire future dreamers and schemers. The multiple perspectives provided in the case studies will assist higher education leaders, as well as academic and professional staff, in establishing or assessing CoPs. The book offers insights into implementation strategies, practical guidelines and ideas on how CoP theoretical underpinnings can be tailored to the higher education context.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Profiles of Higher Education Communities of Practice: Case Studies.- 1 Sustaining the Momentum: A cross-institutional community of practice for research supervisors.- 2 The roleo f higher education in facilitating communities of practice to support health professionals practice.- 3 Building a network and finding a community of practice for undergraduate mathematics lecturers.- 4 Communities practising generous scholarship: Cultures of collegiality in academic writing retreats.- 5 Using Technology to Build Engagement in a Global Scholarship of Teaching and Learning(SoTL) Community of Practice.- 6 Researcher preparation for indigenous fundamental research through collaborative participation.- 7 Imagining the world: Creating an artistic community of practice in an academic environment.- Part II Communities of Practice - Curriculum Development.- 8 Enabling stories: Narrative, leadership, and identity in a faculty-based teaching community of practice.- 9 Choosing change: Using a community of practice model to support curriculum reform and improve teaching quality in the first year.- 10 Communities of Practice: A practical approach to enhance student learning at a South African university.- 11 A facilitated Community of Practice: Enabling student success in the blended learning environment.- 12 A Community of Practice for Blended Science and Engineering Learning and Teaching at UniSA.- 13 Sustainability Focused CoP: Enabling transformative education.- Part III Student focused Communities of Practice.- 14 A doctoral Community of Practice: A spatial entity across social media.- 15 A Student-Staff Community of Practice within an Inter-University Final-Year Project.- 16 Learning Value and Identity Formation: Social Learning and the Graduate Studies Experience.- 17 Equity Buddies: Building communities of practice to support the transition and retention of students through their first year at university.- 18 The practice of being a student: CoPs and graduate student success.- 19 The Lifecycle of a Student-led Community of Practice in Higher Education.- Part IV Virtual Communities of Practice in Higher Education.- 20 Meitheal: An Irish Case Study in Building a Virtual Community of Practice in Transitional Times.- 21 Facilitating a Community of Practice (CoP) in the Arts: Connecting online university learning to 'real-world' experience.- 22 The Australian Chemistry Discipline Network - A supportive community of practice in a hard science.- 23 Bringing focus through community: Social learning in online teaching, learning and research.- 24 Practicing the Practice: The Heutagogy Community of Practice.- 25 The connected community of practice in educational technology: A model for future networked professional development?.- 26 International collaborative writing groups as communities of practice.- 27 Principles of Modeling COPs for pedagogical change: Lessons learns from practice 2006 to 2014.