Practicing the Practice: The Heutagogy Community of Practice

Abstract

Founded in 2013, the Heutagogy Community of Practice aims to pro-mote awareness of and to enact the learning principles that are its topical focus: heutagogy, or self-determined learning. Similar to Communities of Practice, heut-agogy shares common theoretical underpinnings in the ideas of emergence, self-organizing systems, human agency, and constructivism. The Heutagogy Community of Practice was founded for the purpose of bringing together those interested in the theory and practice of heutagogy. The Heutagogy Community of Practice has since expanded to become a springboard for the development of international conferences, publications, and numerous formal and informal col-laborations among its members. This chapter presents a description of the evolution of the Heutagogy Community of Practice, while demonstrating the ways in which the Community has maximized the benefits of social media tools (such as WordPress, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook) to connect its members and promote open knowledge-building and sharing. The Heutagogy Community of Practice focuses on the theory and practice of self-determined learning, or heutagogy (Hase and Kenyon 2000), and, as a Community, has strived to enact and practice this theory. The Community's pur-pose is: …to bring together people from around the world to share their practical experiences with heutagogy, their thoughts and questions about the theory, and their ongoing work within the field. In addition to giving participants an opportunity to connect on the topic of heutagogy, this Community of Practice also serves as a repository of published and ongoing research into its theory and practice. In essence, we hope to collectively create an envi-ronment that will advance the theory further, while also mirroring the practice of heutagogy as self-determined learning. (heutagogycop.wordpress.com) As Communities of Practice and heutagogy both emphasize notions of self-organization, emergence, context, relevance, active participation, and reflection (Tennant 1997; Lave and Wenger 1991), using a Community of Practice framework to foster learning about heutagogy (self-determined learning) and to advance its practice was a natural choice. To further these principles, the Heutagogy Community of Practice has expanded its reach, scope, activities, and engagement through the use of several social media tools and a grass roots approach to outreach and organization. This chapter will provide the context for the Heutagogy Community of Practice, including its history and its current state; discuss the theory and practice of heut-agogy as it relates to the approach taken through the theory and application of communities of practice; describe the goals of the Heutagogy Community of Practice as well as its strengths and challenges; and will conclude with the authors' reflections on the Heutagogy Community of Practice, its future plans, and lessons learned that may be applicable to communities of practice in general.