Building Communities Of Practice Research Articles

The Incluseum Manifesto for the Humanities in the Public Sphere

Abstract The Inclusuem is a collaborative project established in 2012 with international reach and global impact. The three co-directors, Aletheia Whitman, Dr. Rose Paquet, and Dr. Porchia Moore share a mission to “advance new ways of being a museum through dialogue, community building, and collaborative practice related to inclusive practice in museums.” We have provided a platform for over a decade which prompts arts and cultural heritage professionals to push the bounds of museum work to be as expansive and inclusive as possible while enacting structural change. In this piece, we focus on museums as sites where the humanities are made public. Our manifesto proposes a vision for the public humanities in a changing political landscape and will introduce new perspectives for both an emerging museum and an emergent new understanding for the public humanities within museums faced with an antagonistic intellectual and cultural ecosystem.

Restorative Justice Practices as a Foundation for Medical Education Innovation.

Restorative justice (RJ) is an ethical lens that places emphasis on a community's connection and proliferative impact of actions, promoting communication and establishing methods for accountability. RJ practices can be applied on a spectrum, including proactive community-building practices, community discussions in response to an event, and restorative conferences addressing specific incidences of harm. This article describes an intervention that utilized RJ community-building practices within a medical education environment and evaluates its acceptability and feasibility. During the summer of 2023, RJ interventions were planned, executed and assessed within two programmes involving pre-matriculant medical students, physician-assistant studies students and undergraduate students. The interventions utilized community-building circles within small group activities. Capacity building included training for facilitators. Ninety-five students participated in the RJ circles. Evaluation included mixed methods pre- and post-intervention surveys as well as qualitative interviews. Ten students (11%) responded to the pre-intervention survey, and 17 responded to the post-intervention survey (18%). Seven responses were obtained from interviews and qualitative surveys. Overall, participant survey responses indicated increased feelings of connection and perceptions of mutual understanding and that the programme provided adequate space to share one's perspective. Qualitative content analysis emphasized community building through RJ circles and their ability to promote connection, meaningful vulnerability, foster peer support and a desire to continue these activities. RJ interventions within medical education environments are feasible and show considerable promise. Participants consistently noted the benefits of greater connection between peers, feelings of support and a desire for these practices to continue.

Bonding over bashing: Discussing LGBTI topics in far-right alternative news media comments sections

Abstract This study investigates virtual community-building practices and discriminatory views in PAL NWS, a Dutch-speaking Belgian far-right alternative news medium, by examining discussions in the comments sections. Thematic analysis was applied to a total of 1,127 comments by 343 users in response to 50 articles about LGBTI topics. The findings show that far-right alternative news sites can function as virtual communities that facilitate polarization. The comments exhibited a high level of hostility towards LGBTI individuals, particularly toward transgender people and public displays of LGBTI inclusion. Furthermore, Muslims were homogeneously perceived as homophobes, and LGBTI topics were understood as (woke) ideological suppression by a dogmatic minority. The results of this study have implications for understanding the dynamics of comments sections on alternative media and the potential for far-right news platforms to facilitate the spread of intolerance.

Exploring Hybrid Learning Formats in a Nordic Master’s Programme in Visual Studies and Art Education

This paper reports from a project in progress that aims to develop a hybrid learning format that is sufficiently flexible to accommodate collaborative situations between students and teachers on two campuses and in collaborative situations off-campus. The project explores a current co-teaching opportunity that AAU and Aalto University are facing due to the start-up of the new Nordic joint degree master's program Visual Studies and Art Education (NM NoVA). A new physical space has been established at the AAU Copenhagen campus, that digitally facilitates a video-mediated, synchronous learning environment and a similar facilitation is accessible at Aalto University. Teachers and researchers join into a collaboration and conduct the project drawing theoretical knowledge generated in the field of synchronous learning formats and from research in the particular subject related field of digital technology and visual arts education. Furthermore, the project uses the participants’ practical experience from engaging in different synchronous learning formats shared and informed by discussions with peers. Inspired by Design-Based Research (DBR), researchers actively engage in the problem analysis, design, implementation, and analysis of the hybrid learning format. Rich descriptions of the program's evolution are obtained through participant observations, interviews, and a "photo-safari" capturing interactions among students, teachers, and technology.Analytically, the study explores the hybrid format as an enactment of space beyond geographical constraints, drawing inspiration from the concept of "apparatus" within new materialism. Three analytical themes emerge: knowledge-building practices, community-building practices, and longitudinal aspects, providing insights into how the hybrid format impacts collaboration, engagement, and the evolution of educational spaces. Preliminary findings reveal the diverse orientations and pedagogical discussions that emerge within these hybrid spaces, challenging the traditional notion of a "third space" and paving the way for new conceptualisations. The project anticipates further exploration of interdependencies within third spaces and the dynamics of student and teacher bodies within this evolving educational landscape.

Central Europe in the Fifteenth Century: Patterns of Conflict and Negotiation

Abstract The nine articles in this collection are the product of two workshops hosted at the University of Chicago in 2022 and 2023 in affiliation with the University of Vienna. They build on recent work that has called attention to the extraordinary political and religious diversity in the fifteenth-century Holy Roman Empire, and Central Europe more broadly. Pushing back against older historiography, in which this period was frequently overlooked or framed by uncritical use of such broad categories as the “state,” the “territory,” the “estates,” and the “feud,” this collection recognizes the polycentric nature of the fifteenth century's structures and institutions. Specifically, these articles return to the sources, especially documents of practice rather than normative texts, to open the door to a new understanding of conflicts and negotiations. They illuminate the patterns of conflict and negotiation evident in specific historical contexts by examining actors, networks, and practices of community building—as well as the processes through which conflicts emerged, evolved, and were negotiated and settled. Rather than relying on time-honored categories and meta-narratives, the contributors embrace the messiness of social and political relations and of the extant source material to shine new light on key themes in the fifteenth century's history.

A School Leader's Acompañamiento: Identity and Belonging With Immigrant Families

Purpose:This study explores the community-building practices of a school leader at a middle/high school in a Latino/a and African American community. I analyze how the principal leveraged his immigrant identity and experiences to connect with immigrant families and adapt to their needs to form a sense of belonging in the school and neighborhood. I focus on the power of immigrant and BIPOC school leaders drawing from their cultural practices to lead efforts for family engagement. Methods: My study draws on a 3-year critical ethnographic study. Qualitative data sources include participant observation of school/community events; interviews with school faculty, parents, and community members; and participatory methods. I draw on the concepts of pedagogies of acompañamiento and critical care to theorize practices that educators employ to forge relationships with families and create humanizing spaces. Findings: I argue that the school's principal, a Latino immigrant, functioned as a “border broker” in helping families find a sense of belonging in the school and community. He embodied pedagogies of acompañamiento as he accompanied parents through marginalizing experiences and created spaces where they could share and participate in decision-making. Discussion: I highlight the possibilities of pedagogies of acompañamiento in school spaces and recommend practices for school leaders in designing engagement strategies.

A Double-Edged Sword: Examining the Structures That Afford and Limit Practices of Environmental Learning and Community Building in an Urban Community Garden in South Korea

Abstract Community gardens offer valuable educational and social benefits, contributing to enhanced environmental learning and community building. To expand these opportunities and support community gardens’ objectives, we emphasize the necessity of establishing specific structures that facilitate gardeners’ practices. Investigating a Korean community as a case study, we identify the ways in which certain structures afford and limit learning opportunities and community building, shedding light on the role structures can play in the field of the community garden. Our analysis illustrates the importance of understanding the dynamic relationship between gardening practices and supporting structures. By doing so, garden participants and policymakers can more intentionally activate opportunities to learn about the environment and to build community. Our research aims to examine structures that afford and limit practices as a means of providing a valuable lens to guide community gardening program designers and policymakers in achieving the goals of promoting environmental learning and community building.

Home-making in the internationalised university: a theoretical and personal encounter through SWANA Forum for Social Justice

In this article, the internationalised campus is understood as a higher education institution, a stage and a platform, with its own cultural and legal practices and processes, on which and in which social and multiple cultural interactions are performed. Sensitive to Braidotti’s concept of nomadic subjects, we – three postgraduate students from the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region – describe an intercultural encounter with each other and with a higher education institution in which we create a sense of belonging. As the three co-founders of SWANA Forum for Social Justice, we describe our experience of community building at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. Using our preferred conceptual framework, and reflecting on our personal narratives bearing on the question of belonging and home-making, we offer a metatheoretical conversation that draws on Bourdieu’s notion of field, habitus and capital when describing what happens during community-building practices in internationalised university campuses; an engagement with social justice in education through concepts such as recognition, safety, belonging and success; and a pragmatist philosophical conceptualisation of community as a democratic public, and its potential for action and change.

Visualizing conviviality in the fortress of the Italian far-right: the case of Veronetta

ABSTRACT In Italy, the city of Verona is known not merely for its stunning historical scenery, but also for its reactionary environment foreshadowing the nativist turn in the wider society. Against this backdrop, the racialized neighborhood of Veronetta offers much needed insights into convivial practices with pluralist interconnections. Part of a three-year fieldwork, this research investigates possibilities of everyday conviviality and intercultural sociability in urban spaces, tracing those dynamics that allow a racialized neighborhood to strive in a hostile city. Alongside participant observation, in-depth interviews, and archival research, the visual method of photo-elicitation is utilized to draw out multidimensional aspects of conviviality, where migrant and non-migrant residents photographically narrate their everyday practices. The article argues that the juxtaposition of intentional urban encounters and accessible public spaces, alongside everyday community-building practices of grassroots actors complement each other in transforming a “no-go zone” into an anti-racist movement space that challenges exclusionary territorial identities.

Queering Russian cinema as a community-building practice

ABSTRACT LGBTQ media discourses in contemporary Russia have been extensively researched from the perspectives of media and queer studies. Scholars have theorised whether ‘queerness’ can be appropriated from the West and localised in Russia for the benefit of local LGBTQ communities. Building on existing scholarship, this article examines media discourses on queer film as initiated and maintained by representatives of Russian LGBTQ film audiences. I investigate how LGBTQ opinion leaders appropriate the term kvir (queer) in the context of viewing and interpreting contemporary, post-Soviet, and Soviet Russian cinema. I analyse how ‘queering’ is used as the optics for discerning obvious or ciphered visual and verbal expressions of non-heteronormative gender and sexuality on screen, at the same time reclaiming narratives of the recent and remote past, as both shared and individual LGBTQ histories.

Introduction: Narratives of Belonging—The Interrelation between Ontological-Epistemological Observations and Narrative Methodology

In a recent editorial, the Lancet reported that one of the consequences of pandemics is the detrimental impact “on the mental health of affected populations,” and the current COVID-19 one is no different. Since its out-break at the end of 2019, “depressed mood, anxiety, impaired memory, and insomnia” are constant companions of people around the world. Many even experience “stress, burnout, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Amongst its concerns, the Lancet notes the rising “misuse of substances” as a consequence of these mental health problems.1 One of the reasons for this global mental health crisis is the way the pandemic affects peoples’ practices of community building and rituals of belonging. Having to wear masks, being required to keep at least 1.5 meters apart, not being able to meet (vulnerable) friends and family members, and even more drastic measures like weeklong lockdowns fundamentally disrupted everyday lives and reduced opportunities to socialize. What is normally taken for granted is being challenged. Around the world, these measures have been met by increasing demonstrations, often based on conspiracy theories and against commonsense precautions for preventing a potentially lethal disease. This conflict between reasonable precaution and emotional stress and pressure suggests disruptions of common narratives of belonging.

Building communities of practice through case-based e-learning to prevent and manage TB among people living with HIV–India

BackgroundCo-management of HIV-TB coinfection remains a challenge globally. Addressing TB among people living with HIV (PLHIV) is a key priority for the Government of India (GoI). In 2016, GoI implemented single-window services to prevent and manage TB in PLHIV. To strengthen HIV-TB service delivery, case-based e-learning was introduced to health care providers at Antiretroviral Therapy centres (ARTc).MethodsWe implemented a hub and spoke model to deliver biweekly, virtual, case-based e-learning at select ARTc (n = 115), from four states of India–Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We evaluated feasibility and acceptability of case-based e-learning and its impact on professional satisfaction, self-efficacy, knowledge retention using baseline and completion surveys, session feedback, pre-and post-session assessments. We reviewed routine programmatic data and patient outcomes to assess practices among participating ARTc.ResultsBetween May 2018 and September 2020, 59 sessions were conducted with mean participation of 55 spokes and 152 participants. For 95% and 88% of sessions ≥ 80% of respondents agreed that topics were clear and relevant to practice, and duration of session was appropriate, respectively. Session participants significantly improved in perceived knowledge, skills and competencies (+ 8.6%; p = 0.025), and technical knowledge (+ 18.3%; p = 0.04) from baseline. Participating ARTc increased TB screening (+ 4.2%, p < 0.0001), TB diagnosis (+ 2.7%, p < 0.0001), ART initiation (+ 4.3%, p < 0.0001) and TB preventive treatment completion (+ 5.2%, p < 0.0001).ConclusionCase-based e-learning is an acceptable and effective modus of capacity building and developing communities of practice to strengthen integrated care. E-learning could address demand for accessible and sustainable continuing professional education to manage complex diseases, and thereby enhance health equity. We recommend expansion of this initiative across the country for management of co-morbidities as well as other communicable and non-communicable diseases to augment the existing capacity building interventions by provide continued learning and routine mentorship through communities of practice.

Awakening the essence of classroom community building

In continuing the legacy of community-mindedness, good Black educators today consistently enact emancipatory pedagogies designed to protect Black children’s personhood. Cultivating community in the classroom setting is one ritual they use toward affirming young Black children’s literate character, presence, and pursuits, and they do so in the midst of constant disruption to Black children’s language and literacy development imposed by eurocentric curriculum and instruction. This Afrocentric case study, or Afronography, draws on dialogic discussions and video-recorded teaching sessions to examine the classroom community-building practices of one African American woman educator during her literacy instruction with Black third graders. Data analysis revealed that the teacher created opportunities for her Black students to increase their sense of belonging in the classroom.

The Vital Role of Medical Librarians in a Time of Information Overload

&#x0D; This October is Canadian Library Month, which underscores the value of libraries and medical librarians as trusted sources in a world of information overload.&#x0D; The changing information landscape has served to transform the role of medical libraries and librarians and to highlight their crucial role in supporting rigorous scientific research.&#x0D; Medical librarians who specialize in the field of health technology assessment have taken on the role of monitoring the evolving landscape of information sources and technological advancements.&#x0D; Building communities of practice among health technology assessment librarians offers opportunities to strengthen skill sets, discuss methodological standards in information retrieval, and nurture broad participation in these conversations.&#x0D;

Cladding and community

The longstanding housing crisis in the UK, and London in particular, has been exacerbated in recent years by an increased understanding of the flammability of buildings and the arrival of what activists term ‘The Cladding Scandal’. In this paper, I show how in response to the health and financial risks of The Cladding Scandal, disparate groups come together to challenge the dominant politics of expertise through the enrolment of traditionally ‘expert’ forms of knowledge within community groups. I analyse community building practices, especially the lines of communication, to show a means by which the social reproduction of the city is sustained, to argue that such practices constitute an important but under-recognised form of expertise. Drawing together geographies of emotion and social reproduction theory, I demonstrate the productive possibilities of thinking through the social reproduction of the city and its politics of expertise by questioning the role, types and circulation of particular emotions.

Ghost in the Kitchen: Multiracial Korean Americans (Re)Defining Cultural Authenticity

This scholarly essay explores some techniques that multiracial Korean Americans employ to trouble traditional notions of cultural authenticity as markers for racial/ethnic identity construction. I position multiracial individuals as foils to the common assumptions that cultural authenticity requires “native” lived experience, “full bloodedness”, or a particular level of linguistic competency, in favor of cultural competency, analyzing the web community, HalfKorean.com. The site is a U.S.-based community of multiracial Korean Americans, where narrations of food and Korean motherwork play roles in many elements of the site, and in different ways work to reinforce new and adaptable forms of authenticity. Paying particular attention to the ways that cultural knowledge on the individual level becomes a marker for shaping community, I position Korean motherwork and household practices as vehicles of analysis. These embodied cultural practices inform community building practices, becoming critical variables for multiracial Korean Americans to exert cultural knowledge and expertise, authenticating flexible racial/cultural identities, which is an act of embodying what I term “plastic authenticity”. Multiracial bodies are inherently perceived as racially in-authentic; however, plastic authenticity is a framework that allows for expressions of identity and memory that resist this notion, grounded in their proximity to Korean women/motherhood.

Introducing Undergraduate Students to Kinesiology Using Team-Based Learning

ABSTRACT Team-based learning (TBL) is an evidence-based collaborative pedagogical strategy that engages student knowledge through group collaboration. Using TBL, a course is designed around units of instruction, referred to as modules. TBL has been found to motivate students by holding them accountable to themselves and their peers, while also introducing them to a variety of thought processes. Furthermore, research indicates that students have reported growing in their creative thinking and oral communication. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine undergraduate kinesiology students’ experiences of using TBL in an introductory course. Researchers were interested in the advantages of building communities of practice within the scholastic setting as well as using a “flipped” classroom to better prepare students for upper level courses. In order to build the course, a team of faculty brought expertise from each of the core sub-disciplines in kinesiology. The introductory course instructor then taught the course using TBL throughout the semester, including Readiness Assurance Tests, Decision Based Questions, and application based projects all done in their semester-long designated team during class instruction time. Students participated in an entry and exit interview which focused on exploring pre and post course preparedness, course engagement and communication styles, and overall feelings toward group work. Results indicated that students had overall more positive experiences and feelings toward group work and classroom engagement, while still valuing their instructor in a flipped classroom setting.

Crafting a Relational Queer Body

In this article, I argue that Latinx artist Ben Cuevas uses knitting—a craft associated with traditional femininity and domesticity—to propose new understandings of relational queer bodies in an era of renewed and heightened policing and abuse against racialized subjects in the 2010s and 2020s. Relational queer bodies are those that not only refuse normativity and fixed categories of identity but also thrive on egalitarian social relations and interconnectedness. Moreover, relational queer bodies are defined not so much by their bodily presence. Rather, they are mostly constituted through practices of solidarity, affinity, and community building. Through his work, Cuevas defines the relational queer body as one that moves fluidly across discursive, meditative, and physical states. His knitting gestures and movements thus become the means by which the artist moves across various realms of the body. Cuevas’s desire to explore embodiment compels spectators themselves to experience the subjectivity of the queer body of color, to resist the dehumanization that a white supremacist society imposes on nonwhite and nonnormative communities. As an HIV-positive, genderqueer, and racialized subject, Cuevas’s decision to extend his bodily presence within the artwork becomes an inherently political act, one that is made all the more transgressive and provocative by the artist’s choice of materials.

“Weird Is Normal”: A Womanist Discourse Analysis of Black Girl Nerds’ Community Building

ABSTRACT Constructing school spaces where Black girls feel comfortable enough to be their full selves is essential in a system that consistently shows them that they do not matter. Cultivating these spaces, however, requires educators to understand that Black girls’ identities are multiple and varied, that Black girls can be anything. Still, some identity positions, such as nerdiness, are often only attributed to white youth, forcing nerdy Black girls to hide themselves in fear that their interests confirm that something within them is wrong. In this article, I use womanist discourse analysis to examine the unstructured talk of six Black girl nerds who participated in a writing workshop. In analyzing these conversations, I emphasize how the girls engaged in womanist practices of community building that honor the full spectra of their identities. Further, I argue for the cultivation of safe spaces for Black girl nerds to exist.

Pursuing the Nature of Community: Community Building Practice and Reflections

Community is an important part of people’s life and a major link in social structure and social networks, so it directly affects the integration and order of society as a whole. The nature of community is the foundation on which a community and society can exist and develop. Traditional resources should be activated under market economy conditions. As well, we should take the overall and long-term interests of human beings as the fundamental reason and goal. The thinking about the rural areas governance in China largely falls into the category of developmentalism, only (or mainly) emphasizing the economic growth in rural areas, and the construction of the nature of community has been neglected. To build a xiaokang society in an all-round way, in concrete situations, is how to re-build communities.