Date of Completion
12-13-2020
Document Type
Campus Access Capstone
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
First Advisor
Alan Girelli
Abstract
The author seeks to contribute to the research and application of Communities of Practice (CoP) and situated learning, as codified by Lave and Wenger (1991). The specific CoP, and subject of this research, is the forming collectivist community: “Treehouse Village Ecohousing” (TVE).
Within TVE, members intend to acquire and share knowledge collectively. Prior to the establishment of the physical community, unit cohesion had been fostered in-person, through a prerequisite 3-part “Group-Forming Series”. Potential members were asked to articulate their perceived group identity, work ethic, shared vision, shared values, and decision-making processes.
During these formative gatherings, the ideals of both sociocracy and nonviolent communication (NVC) emerged; both being identified as foundational to what would later be their counterculture ethos. Inherent to sociocracy are “consent-based” decision making, distributed authority, and feedback.
Client-members of the forming TVE community elected to engage the designer-researcher to develop and launch an online course on NVC. Subsequently, the designer-researcher endeavored to identify the goals of various interventions TVE members proposed, ultimately identifying which particular learning intervention to employ.
Findings indicate that an examination of the core concepts underlying CoP provides a conceptual framework to support the abstruse decision-making involved in selecting the most appropriate learning invention to meet the distinct needs of the client-members referenced herein.
Recommended Citation
Miller, Kristin Ann, "Learning in Communities: A Nonviolent Communication Course for Treehouse Village Ecohousing" (2020). Instructional Design Capstones Collection. 68.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/instruction_capstone/68
Comments
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