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Organizing professional communities of practice
Ropes, D.C.
Publication date
2010
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Ropes, D. C. (2010). Organizing professional communities of practice. University of
Amsterdam, Department of Child Development and Education.
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Acknowledgements
Writing this dissertation has been a path of discovery in both the scientific and personal sense of the word. One reason that I choose the topic of communities of practice was to give meaning to my life at work. After reading the works of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger I realized how important communities of practice were to me and to my way of learning and being. At one point I found myself ‘com-munity-less’ at work– the organization where I worked was undergoing major re-organization and our very close team was split up and as a consequence I felt somewhat lost and disconnected. It was then that I decided to find a new commu-nity of practice and pursue the topic. And once again I am involved in several dif-ferent communities and all sorts of difdif-ferent people who have helped me in different ways. I would like to take this time to thank them.
Thanks to those who gave me direction in my preferred research method, namely the Design Science Research Group. This community of practice has been impor-tant to me because for the last five years it has helped me gain new insight into general research skills as well as help refine my interpretation of design-based re-search. My heartfelt thanks go out to all the members and especially to Joan van Aken and Daan Andriessen for starting this community, and helping to keep it alive. It has meant a lot to me to be part of a group like ours. Thanks to all my colleagues at INHolland for listening about and discussing my research and how it applies to our work as educators. And many thanks to Pieter Swager, for help-ing with the summary translation, which was also a valuable exercise in sense-making.
Some people gave me directions related to content, such as my colleagues in The Centre for Research in Intellectual Capital. I started my journey there about six years ago with an idea to write a dissertation. But without the inspiration, the en-couragement and the expert guidance of lector Daan Andriessen, I would not have started writing it. I also want to thank my colleagues in the CRIC for more than four years of listening, giving feedback and encouragement and being good friends and colleagues. Thanks Eja, Marien, Miriam and others who were part of the CRIC community. I want to especially thank Christiaan Stam, who kept on
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the one hand a critical eye on my research, and on the other hand was always mo-tivating me by showing the added value of my work.
My thanks go out to Jürg Thölke who opened up his practice to me and showed me how CoPs can be coached and facilitated.
Thanks to all the people who helped me by participating in the research. I like to think that the communities we organized together helped you to understand and change the place where you work.
I was a lucky student because I had two of the best mentors possible, namely Daan Andriessen and Sjoerd Karsten, without whom this dissertation would never have been finished. Sjoerd was always available to help me. He gave me a physi-cal place in his office at the UvA, but more importantly a prominent space in his agenda. His insights into the research process were illuminating and crucial for my understanding of how to bridge more typical educational science research and design-based research.
Thanks to Marianne van Woerkom for giving me access to all versions of the CRWB survey.
Thanks to my two great kids, Emma and Francis for helping to keep me sane in some of the crazy moments. Without you guys I might have forgotten what life is really about.
Finally I want to thank my wife Corine. She took up a lot of slack in the family unit caused by long workdays and tough moments in the research process -moments when I was both physically and mentally absent. Thanks Corine, with-out your support this dissertation would not have been possible.
