Title: Action research: a process for developing professional capacity within a community of practice

Authors: Marcia A. Docherty

Addresses: Canadian National Institute of Health, Camosun College, Canada

Abstract: Learning within a community of practice is a common approach for competency development in the healthcare field. Despite the strengths of situated learning, hegemony can inhibit learning. This case study illustrates how action research was used to examine and challenge an entrenched training practice within the ultrasound community of practice. The action research process also resulted in an unintentional shift in the professional identities of two co-researchers. This case study examines action research as an existential process and concludes that action research can increase organisational capacity through the development of individual professional identity.

Keywords: autoethnography; communities of practice; existential action research; knowledge management; ultrasonography.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKMS.2017.084396

International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies, 2017 Vol.8 No.1/2, pp.74 - 82

Received: 04 Feb 2016
Accepted: 03 Jan 2017
Published online: 06 Jun 2017 *

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