Knowledge Management for School Education by Eric C. K. Cheng

Author:Eric C. K. Cheng
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

4.5 CoP Facilitation

A CoP consists of dynamic social structures that require cultivation so that they can emerge and grow (Wenger et al. 2002). A CoP emerging from bottom-up initiatives does not mean that organisations cannot do anything to influence their development. CoPs are increasingly initiated by a sponsor at senior management level, rather than emerging spontaneously (Fontaine 2001). Despite the fact that a CoP does not usually require heavy institutional infrastructures, the school could design a community environment, foster the formalisation of the community, and plan activities to help grow and sustain a CoP. Although the concept of a CoP is different from that of a team or group (Wenger et al. 2002), the existence of a common goal as a driving force to bond the members together at the initial stage of the development would be very similar, and thus strategies for building a team or group that focus on developing a common goal may also be adopted to launch a CoP. A study by Griffith et al. (1998) confirmed that strategies focused on the content or the process in the context of information systems management could facilitate group discussion.

Facilitation can be defined as “making things easier by using a range of skills and methods to bring the best out in people as they work to achieve results in interactive events” (Townsend and Donovan 1999, p. 2). The facilitator role entails a wide variety of behaviours, including leadership behaviours (Schuman 2005). An effective facilitation strategy is critical to the development and sustainability of a CoP. Facilitation strategies may focus on the process or content for knowledge sharing (Griffith et al. 1998). Process facilitation provides structure and general support to CoP members during their knowledge sharing, while content facilitation focuses on the content of the sharing, analysing the data, and displaying relevant issues. Content and process facilitation for knowledge sharing are not exclusive but rather inform each other to achieve a multiplier effect (Eden 1990; Miranda and Bostrom 1999; Zúñiga et al. 2002). Griffith et al.’s (1998) strategies of content and process facilitation provide a framework to schools to initiate the development of a CoP. Empirical results indicate that the process and content theory of facilitation have significant positive effects on both the knowledge-sharing process and the outcome of collaborative learning (Leidner and Fuller 1997; Khalifa and Kwok 1999). A CoP is a platform for collaborative learning (Holland 2005; Cheng 2009), thus content and process facilitation could be adopted as strategies to launch a CoP for effective learning.

Content facilitation focuses on the needs of the CoP members, particularly for those activities that could provoke members’ reflection and induce collaboration. Content facilitation guides the content of the negotiation and dialogues in line with the knowledge domain of the joint enterprise. It could be adopted as a strategy to frame the discussion content of a CoP to align with the knowledge domain for creating the joint enterprise. Content facilitation draws the boundary of a CoP by focusing on the knowledge domain of the joint enterprise.

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