Centering Equity in School Leadership Communities of Practice

The concept of a community of practice (CoP) is not new to educational spaces. Lave and Wenger’s well-known book, Situated Learning, builds on sociocultural understandings of learning as social and rooted in the local context to frame learning as a reason for increasing participation in communities of practice. For school leaders, CoPs offer a framework both to facilitate teachers’ growth and learning and to provide avenues for supporting leaders’ own growth and development. While much educational CoP literature has focused on teachers, a small body of research focuses on the possibilities and participation of educational leaders in CoPs. Given the continued urgency of equity-oriented leadership, this brief focuses on that body of research: CoPs for leadership development as it relates to equity and social justice.