As departmental workplace educators are often placed in leadership teams, they are at risk of appearing to be in supervisory roles, separate from the communities of practice their positions are designed to support. Nonaka et al. (2000) state that when leadership identifies “spontaneously formed ba” they “have to read the situation in terms of how members of the organisation are interacting with each other and with outside environments in order to quickly capture the naturally emerging ba, as well as to form ba effectively” (p. 25). It is essential that workplace educators such as Practice Leaders, Education Coordinators and Curriculum Designers, are positioned appropriately to allow for meaningful engagement and active participation in these communities. When workplace educators build an understanding of these communities of practice through membership, they develop awareness of the cultural activities within the relevant semiotics domains so they can tap into these communities to integrate learning initiatives that are supportive of necessary change or elevate emerging practices. Additionally, as participants, they can identify deficiencies that may be present to provide meaningful participation through the creation of digital tools, the facilitation of new communication practices, or the development of policies and procedures.
#sociocultural #CoP #participatory