ABSTRACT:
The chapter outlines how the use of technology has helped to provide a framework for and support a Community of Practice (CoP) in the Caribbean, bringing together practising teachers and educationalists from several islands, particularly Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia. The community is drawn from practitioners originally enrolled on a Masters in Educational Studies at the University of Sheffield, and the programme works closely with local institutions to help develop a Community of Practice that allows practitioners to build on local resources and expertise and to draw up local research, rather than being continually reliant on first-world countries for literature and input. The initial facilitation of a Community of Practice adopted an Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) approach that asked students to work collaboratively on a research project for which they identified research question and methodology, and conducted the actual research, with the aim of establishing working relationships that would outlive the students' involvement with the course.
