A cross-cultural study of learning communities in academic and business contexts

The concept Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998), a component of learning communities, has had a powerful influence in areas as diverse as business practice, interaction in academic departments, and in the way that school teachers plan for their students. This paper reports data from an ongoing cross-cultural study of practitioners' perceptions regarding ways to improve team and individual learning. The data are from three case studies: two university academic departments [one in Australia and one in China] and one Chinese hi-tech company. This allows comparison of ways in which learning communities operate in different cultural and political milieu. The study offers unique insights into how educational organizations operate as learning communities and, consequently, how we may be more effective in promoting workplace learning. © Common Ground.