Abstract

This paper considers political education through nonformal communities of practice on social media. While formal and informal classroom environments remain important in the 21 st century, most adult learning occurs in the nonformal context. Communities of practice on social media provide substantial knowledge dissemination and identity-defining communities of practice, also furnishing the opportunity for praxis. Communist Facebook groups provide communities of practice through knowledge dissemination, community membership, and praxis. This paper defines who these groups are, what they do, how they differ from other groups, their education and tools, how they exist outside of state control, and how they fit inside theoretical frames of communities of practice, specifically Hoadley’s (2005) C4P framework, presenting the theory of digital andragogical nonformal educational communities of practice. This paper concludes that in order to understand 21 st century education, nonformal communities of practice on social media require further investigation.

Highlights

  • As social media has become more and more ubiquitous in 21st-century society, many have moved into silos in their use of social media

  • This paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of Facebook groups that advocate for communism, considering them as digital nonformal andragogical educational communities of practice

  • Facebook groups can be seen as communities of practice when providing knowledge dissemination and community membership

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Summary

Introduction

As social media has become more and more ubiquitous in 21st-century society, many have moved into silos in their use of social media. This paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of Facebook groups that advocate for communism, considering them as digital nonformal andragogical educational communities of practice. Keles (2018) has considered the interplay of teachers and students in sharing responsibility for learning within Facebook groups. Avram (2014) has examined the use of Facebook groups in the academic communication process within higher education between and amongst teachers and students. Research on group behavior and political expression on Facebook has not focused mainly on education or communities of practice. The analysis of political behavior on Facebook has not considered communities of practice, a primary location of andragogic development. This paper considers political education in Facebook groups as nonformal andragogic communities of practice, something lacking in the literature. Through the discussion of who these groups are, what they do, how they differ from other groups, and how they have been educated, these communities are shown to be intellectually sophisticated with communal identities whose complexity exists outside state control within a community of practice

On Andragogy
Community of Practice
Digital Ethnography
Digital Andragogical Nonformal Educational Communities of Practice
Scope of Investigation
Who Are They?
What Do They Do?
How Are They Different from Other Facebook Groups?
How Have They Been Educated?
The Political Compass
Outside of State Control
Conclusion
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