Submitted by Victor on
Promoting the use of clear language among children’s rights advocates
Have you ever come across the term "communities of practice" and wondered if there’s a word missing – possibly communities of… religious practice, football practice?
The term actually comes from the academic literature on learning and cognition, and is used to describe groups of people with a common interest (e.g. a craft, a profession or an objective) who share their experiences and knowledge with a view to improving common practice within their field of interest.
Citing one of the leading experts in the field, Dr. Etienne Wenger defines communities of practice as a combination of three elements: 1) that they exist out of a shared interest in a particular field or profession, 2) that information sharing takes place in order to gain knowledge on the shared interest, and 3) that the knowledge gained serves to develop and improve an aspect related to the shared interest.
Within the NGO world, communities of practice tend to be organised, and in the form of thematic groups which meet regularly in person or online.
However, it's one thing to use this term within its appropriate academic sphere, but can cause confusion to use it within NGO reports whose readers are probably not experts in cognitive anthropology and the theory of learning.
There are simpler, more specific, ways of describing communities of practice, such as the direct naming of the community of practice in question. For instance, rather than setting up “a community of practice on children’s rights”, try setting up “an online forum on children’s rights”, or “a thematic group on children’s access to healthcare in rural settings.”