| Abstract: |
Although education research has shown collaboration to be of the utmost importance, schools continue to lack the necessary means to help them incorporate communities of practice (CoPs) to facilitate and sustain their development and growth. We analysed the process by which CoPs were successfully implemented, under the guidance of a research-action-training (R-A-T) initiative, as well as the conditions for effective collaboration between the different instances involved (school districts, university, and principals). The study was based on a conceptual framework consisting of three key concepts: (1) the CoP and two of its sub-themes, namely, participation and reification (Wenger, 1998); (2) collaboration; and (3) the capitals involved (economic, human, and social) (Bourdieu, 1979a, 1979b; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970; OECD, 2001). The data was from multiple sources (individual interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, personal logs). Results show that economic capital made it possible to access the human and social capitals. Economic capital in fact enabled the establishment of three CoPs which generated social capital, supported by a team of university facilitators, and ultimately human capital (material pertaining to supervision and reification). |