Facilitation and Communities of Practice in the Context of D ...

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Abstract

This is a case study of an informal discussion group of organic dairy farmers in Denmark called a stable school (staldskole). It is analyzed using the concepts of facilitation and communities of practice. The concepts capture the two units of analysis in the study: the collaborative learning that happens in a stable school and the individual learning that happens in each participating farmer. The stable school is a venue for facilitation as a transactional dialogue; the values and priorities of the farmer-participants, the facilitator, and the dairy company are all manifested in the learning encounter and influence the direction and dynamics of the learning process. The learning as social participation that happens in the stable school enables the farmers to collectively construct and redefine the practice and meaning of organic dairy farming and build it as a community of practice.