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Emergence of a learning community: a transforming experience at the boundaries

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Abstract

I narrate a process of transformation, a professional and personal journey framed by an experience that captured my attention shaping my interpretation and reflections. From a critical complexity framework I discuss the emergence of a learning community from the cooperation among individuals of diverse social and cultural worlds sharing the need to change a traditional professional development program structure and develop a new science education Masters Degree/Certification program. I zoom into the continual redefinition of the community, its evolution and complex interrelations among its participants and the emergence of a learning community as a boundary space having an emancipatory role and allowing growth and learning. I analyze the dialectical relationship between agents’ behavior either impeding growth or having an emancipatory function of a mindful RelationalAct in a complex adaptive system framework.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1521, USA

    Federica Raia

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  1. Federica Raia
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Correspondence to Federica Raia.

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Lead Editor: P.-L. Hsu.

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Raia, F. Emergence of a learning community: a transforming experience at the boundaries. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 8, 1–24 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-012-9434-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-012-9434-y

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