Communities of practice: review of seminal studies and of those developed in the area of teacher education and practice

Abstract

This work aims at discussing the framework of communities of practice (CPs). In order to achieve this purpose, it presents a review of seminal studies (LAVE; WENGER, 1991; ECKERT; WENGER, 1994; WENGER, 1998, WENGER et al., 2002; among others) and of studies carried out in the area of teacher education and practice within such line (e.g. ANDERSON, 2008; HABHAB-RAVE, 2008; SOUZA-SILVA, 2009; PERIN, 2009; HALU, 2010, among others). Communities of Practice can be defined as groups of people with common interests and concerns who interact continuous and regularly aiming at learning together and developing themselves in a particular domain (WENGER, 1998, 2006). The idea behind the concept is that of a “learning partnership”(WENGER, 2012) established between people who share the same practice. It is hoped that this review contributes to the study and practice of the ones involved with the framework in focus.