Analysis of Brazilian Academic Publication about Communities of Practice

AbstractThe objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of Brazilian academic publication regarding the term communities of practice, to identify their growth over time, as well as transformations of the concept and conceptual forms used. To this end, we begin with the emergence of the concept of communities of practice through a general review of the classical texts that address the issue. Next, we detail our methodological approaches, which included bibliometric techniques and contextual analysis. The results show that the classic texts discussed in the theoretical part of this article are commonly referenced (bibliometrics) in Brazilian academic production. Despite this, it is evident that, in terms of dissemination, extension, restriction or limitation of the use of the communities of practice concept, there are conceptual modifications linking this concept more with researchers' purposes and their research than, necessarily, the compatibility of this concept to what is established in the literature on the theme.