The Protégé Effect and Virtual Communities of Practice

Authors

  • Marianne van Galen Dickie University of Southern Queensland Author

Keywords:

lcj

Abstract

This article outlines how employers, professional bodies and workplaces can address the need to provide a supportive workplace for practitioners who work in sole practice, offsite, or in isolation. Through a qualitative study of 18 Australian migration agents placed in a virtual community of practice (VCoP), this article explains how a VCoP provided supervised practice experience to newly registered migration agents. This research demonstrated how the application of Eraut’s (2007) concept of a supportive workplace contributed to the design of a virtual workplace based on Wenger’s (1998) theory of social learning in a community of practice and enhanced the professional development of isolated migration agents.

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Published

2024-05-09