Community of practice in higher education

The goal of this study is to analyze the insertion in higher education a knowledge management framework called Community of Practice (CoP) or Professional Learning Community. For this, a bibliographic research was made which sought to answer the following question: what factors contribute to the creation, maintenance and strengthening of a CoP in higher education? The results indicate that the inclusion of a CoP in higher education depends on several factors, including the enhancement of social relations among its members, institutional support as a way to overcome the loss of exclusivity of knowledge through the recording of information and the need a facilitator who enables and organize the meetings and encourages attendance at meetings. The community of practice in higher education can take place between professors of specific areas and professors of pedagogical area, and among students, or as a combination of these actors. Moreover, it is possible to involve external parties, such as professionals linked to public or private companies. Several international studies have shown successful results, however, few studies can be found in Brazil.