31 - Introduction to Communities of Practice: Engaging Individual and Collective Knowledge and Stories to Advance and Evaluate Learning

Abstract Information: This interactive skill-building workshop will introduce Communities of Practice (CoPs) and demonstrate their application for monitoring, evaluation, learning and professional development for the evaluation community. CoPs are designed to engage learners in a process of knowledge construction through storytelling and narrative; learners are engaged around common interests, ideas, passions, and goals. Through identifying the three core CoP elements (domain, community, and practice), members work to generate a shared repertoire of knowledge and resources. These three core elements often provide the foundation for monitoring, evaluation, and evaluative thinking. Increasingly, evaluators are called to evaluate and participate in CoPs in their settings. CoPs can be found in many global arenas: monitoring and evaluation teams, corporations, schools, and non-profit settings. This session will explore CoP development and implementation for evaluators focused on understanding experience, increasing knowledge, and ultimately improving practice. Session facilitators will highlight examples from the fields of evaluation, health promotion, and extension education. Participants will engage in a series of hands-on inquiry-oriented techniques and analyze how CoPs can be operationalized in relation to their respective areas of practice. CoP methodologies will be discussed including: storytelling, arts-based, collaborative inquiry, evaluative thinking, and critical self-reflection.

Relevance Statement: Communities of Practice (CoP) continue to increase in relevance across the global to evaluators and the monitoring and evaluation field outside and inside of AEA. We have presented this workshop over ten times at AEA, the Summer Institute and the Eastern Evaluation Society. Outside of AEA, large entities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Cancer Society (ACS), Foundations, and various Fortune 500 companies have linked CoPs into their agencies and to their grantees via Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) units. CDC has recently produced a modest tool kit to help grantees think about creating and evaluating CoPs in their public health environments. This growth trend has been witnessed by Neubauer/Archibald’s in the diverse, participant attendee base since their first Summer Institute and AEA presentations in 2014. Through Activity #1 in the Training (Introductions/Reason for Attending) we have heard directly from our participants that they are coming to understand CoPs as a framework and methodology since they are required to join, create, and/or evaluate one. We have seen CoP interest and relevance increase substantially in our years of bringing this work in AEA. As Adult Educators and Evaluators – this continues to excite us on many levels. CoPs are increasingly seen as a venue to foster evaluative thinking and learning within and across evaluation teams and units. Quite simply, CoPs can and do help foster better evaluation and evaluators. Within AEA, Neubauer/Archibald, continue to share their CoP research and practice with AEA’s Local Affiliates (n=33) who exist as evaluator-composed CoPs. Neubauer led the development of the first Affiliate pre-conference at AEA 2017 which hosted 30 people, a second effort in 2018 which hosted 29 persons & a third effort in 2019 which hosted 28 persons who are actively engaged in CoP scholarship with their Affiliates. CoPs are relevant and timely to the AEA audience. We hope that this information further articulates the relevance and utility of our topic. If the reviewers require any additional information, please feel free to contact Drs. Neubauer and Archibald via email or telephone. We are grateful for consideration in the AEA professional development offerings.