Reflective Community of Practice: Practices Organized by the Collectif Québécois de Conscientisation in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

  This paper aims at bringing to light the interactive relationship between the development of a reflective community of practice and the formation of community coordinators’skills with a view to building a more egalitarian society. The author turns her attention to a collection of narratives on the practices of consciousness-raising organized by members of the Quebecois Collective of Consciousness-raising (Collectif Québécois de Conscientisation: CQC). The CQC is a network of activists, community organizers, researchers who have been involved in actions with the working class using consciousness-raising approach since 1970s. Considering this collective as a reflective community of practice, the author shows the process of community development and the elements that constitute this process as described in the narratives of consciousness-raising practices between 1970s and ‘80s. In addition, she analyses the relationship of this process to the formation of community coordinators’skills that promote the initiative of the consciousness-raising approach in the community. Finally, the author demonstrates the structure of a reflective community of practice that contributes to changing the oppressive social system.