Communities of Practice


Participant Testimonials

“It meant so much to have this space, to share and hear other site leaders’ struggles, and be honest about the challenges we are facing. In fact, this has been the only place I could be vulnerable for the last several weeks.”

“I personally admired the process we went through with the Community of Practice. We started by discussing challenges, and once that was done, we were like, ‘so, we identified what we don’t like, now what are we going to do about them? Which issue do we want to work on?’ And we got to work. We told our superintendent about this, and the process we went through, and how we can use that for other things in the district in the future. That was a good learning experience.”

“I liked the balance between readings, discussions around the readings, and our inquiry work.”

WORKING DEFINITIONS & FRAMEWORKS

21 CSLA Communities of Practice

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
- Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015


Learning in a community of practice is a social activity, generated from the relationships and participation from the members of the group. Within each community of practice, members bring their identities, experiences, beliefs and culture as they contribute to meaning-making conversations that foster learning and develop knowledge.

21CSLA Regional Academy (RA) Communities of Practice provide a space for leaders in similar roles to come together to leading communities of practice that center on equity-centered problems of practice using continuous improvement, while championing transformational leadership.

For the Field

The three defining characteristics of a community of practice are the Domain, the Community and the Practice. “It is the combination of these three elements that constitutes a community of practice. And it is by developing these three elements in parallel that one cultivates such a community” - Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015.

Domain Practice Community

Elements of Effective Communities of Practice

Annamarie Francois
Area 6 Lead

Area 6: Communities of Practice
Facilitate small, sustained, and role-alike professional learning cohorts grounded in leadership for equity and improvement science.