CoP Manual: A practical guide to strengthen inclusive school development through a Community of Practice

H. Boonen; E. Vandenbussche; P. Schukoff; Breyer C.; Silveira-Maia M.; Sanches-Ferreira M.; Alves S.; Zacharová Z.; Liliková L.; Jucková M.; Unterreiner S.; Teijsen E.

doi:10.26537/ed.p.porto.247

CoP Manual: A practical guide to strengthen inclusive school development through a Community of Practice

Authors

H. Boonen; E. Vandenbussche; P. Schukoff; Breyer C.; Silveira-Maia M.; Sanches-Ferreira M.; Alves S.; Zacharová Z.; Liliková L.; Jucková M.; Unterreiner S.; Teijsen E.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26537/ed.p.porto.247

Keywords:

Community of Practice, inclusive school development, inclusive education

Synopsis

This manual is intended for all those who want to start a Community of Practice to support inclusive school development. In this manual, you’ll find a short introduction to the Community of Practice approach, an explanation of why CoPs support inclusive school development, and practical guidelines for preparing and implementing a CoP in your own school context. We build further in this manual on the insights we have gained by piloting the CoP approach in 8 schools across the 4 partner countries, i.e. Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, and Belgium. At the end of this manual, you can find an overview of the CoP process in the pilot schools.

References

Silveira-Maia, M., Neto, C., Sanches-Ferreira, M., Alves, S., Durães, H., Breyer, C., Vandenbussche, E., Boonen, H., Zacharová, Z., Ferková, Š., Schukoff, P., Unterreiner, S., & Teijsen, E. (2025). Mapping CoP for inclusion: a Knowledge Base. Instituto Politécnico do Porto. https://doi.org/10.26537/e.ipp.136

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wenger, E. (2015). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. University of Winsconsin-Madison, Office of Human Resources.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & William Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business Press.