Main characteristics and impacts of communities of practice on education workers: a systematic review of the literature

This study aims to present a systematic literature review of the main characteristics and impacts of Communities of Practice in the educational sector. Empirical studies in Portuguese, English, and Spanish were included without temporal limitations. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Protocol was applied and after consulting five databases, 1,179 studies were returned, whose sequential filtering resulted in 59. In the analysis, we described the characteristics of the communities investigated and carried out a classification of the impacts they produced. This categorization was carried out by three judges, based on two theoretical models — one for evaluating training and development results and the other for value-generation from Communities of Practice. The results indicate a prevalence of impact on the level of learning and the potential value. We present gaps in the literature and a research agenda on these social learning spaces.

Keywords:
Communities of Practice; Education Workers; Professional Development; Systematic Literature Review; Impact Assessment