Communities of Practice: : The Construction of Knowledge in a Research Group

• Autor(a) principal: Halicki, Zélia
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Stadler, Adriano, Cunha, Sieglinde Kindl, Mazziotti Bulgacov, Yára Lúcia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração, Sociedade e Inovação
• Texto Completo: https://www.rasi.vr.uff.br/index.php/rasi/article/view/503
• topic: práticas, comunidades de prática, aprendizagem, grupos de pesquisa; Administração; Comunidades de Prática; practices, communities of practice, learning, research groups

From the 1990’s onwards, a substantial volume of literature had been published about community of practice (CoP) and many scholars had been investigating their existence and the effectiveness in a variety of settings. In this scenario, this study aims at investigating whether the construction of the knowledge of a PhD research group occurs in the form of a CoP. Using the conceptual approach proposed by Wenger (1998) as an analytical basis, the present study combined multiple investigation methods, namely participant observation, analysis of the content of social media, interview, and questionnaire. Data collected was registered in field diaries which were subsequently analysed (Bardin, 2011). Results indicate that members construct their knowledge in a collaborative and cooperative way. The dimensions proposed by Wenger (1998) to identifying and distinguishing CoPs from other groups were present in the group. The conclusion is that the investigated research group can be classified as a CoP.