Virtual Communities of Practice as a Means of Confronting with Educational “Emergency Situations” for Inclusive School Communities: The Case of COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the pandemic crisis due to COVID-19 led to an abrupt transition from face-to-face to remote teaching, which was shown to be particularly challenging in the case of mixed-ability classes. In this chapter, we discuss the concepts of communities of practice and virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) as relevant theoretical constructs for the effective transition to mixed-ability classes in virtual environments. We argue that the benefit of building communities of practice can be two-fold for teachers: first, they can effectively respond to the teaching of all students by establishing a collaborative system of working and by using virtual reality, and second, they can expand their professional development via communities of practice, where they share knowledge and concerns with colleagues facing the same situations. As a result, this particular way of interaction can reduce teachers’ feeling of anxiety for adequate response to mixed-ability classes. This chapter discusses the benefits of virtual communities of practice for teachers and students; it draws attention to the role of school leadership in regard to their initiation and effectiveness, and, finally, it highlights the benefits of this form of collaborative learning, with a focus on learners with diverse educational needs in the context of inclusive school communities.