Fostering Virtual Communities of Practice for the Professional Development of Support Teachers

Abstract

Being at the centre of the debate both in the academic world and in related associations, during the most difficult period of the Covid-19 emergency support teacher training has prompted a reflection on the relationship between training, teaching strategies, and learning environments (real or virtual). Support teachers certainly represent one of the key professional figures for an indispensable innovation of the welfare system. Such innovation shall unfold according to a promotional and regenerative perspective with confidence in the principle according to which the development of specific professional skills is necessary because it qualifies the scientific foundation of their educational interventions. Thus, the essay offers a contribution to the definition of the support teacher professional profile in the light of the legislative reforms that have regulated access to the profession, and of the new perspectives on virtual communities of practice. The latter enjoy intense collaboration or cooperation, which are considered very effective in terms of the social production of knowledge and the development of reflective-practical-operative and fruitful skills for the understanding of the teacher’s professionalization process.

Keywords

• Inclusive skills
• Teacher training
• Specialization course
• Reflective practices
• Virtual communities of practice