Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age (Jan 2019)
Online Communities of Practice: Sustainable Leadership Model
Abstract
Wenger (2011) has argued that domain, community and practice should be gathered in order to create communities of practice (CoP). It is believed that CoP would end as soon as the interest in learning together diminishes. Within that context, the role played by the community leader is of importance. In structural communities, which Wenger defines as the domain of CoP, the leader of the community could be chosen and assigned from the organization and be motivated through salary, authority etc. However, this is a phenomenon that is more difficult and should be solved in online CoP, which are informally structured. In this study, it is advocated that sustainable leadership element should also be added to the current elements which includes domain, community, and practice, through analyzing Wenger's framework for CoP and creating an online CoP. In addition, we also recommended the A2D cyclical model for enabling sustainable leadership in this research.
