Emerging Pedagogies in the Networked Knowledge Communities

Introduction

Pedagogy is a historical notion shifting with the consciousness of society and the imperatives of time. Traditionally, the notion of pedagogies is understood as the art and science of teaching and in a one-dimensional way as the methods of instruction dealing with how to teach. Today, the meaning of pedagogy transcends its traditional understanding as it involves multidimensional and emergent pedagogical knowledge bases (Munby, Russell, & Martin, 2001). Currently, the pedagogical knowledge bases can be described within the two broad categories: the knowledge bases of teaching and the knowledge bases of educational contexts. Briefly, the knowledge bases of teaching – from now on I refer to them as pedagogical components – can be described in terms of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) that includes pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, technological knowledge, and the knowledge generated within the intersections of these components (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Shulman, 1987). The knowledge bases of educational contexts – from now on I refer to them as pedagogical contexts – are the larger contexts of education such as socio-cultural, economic, political, and technological conditions. These pedagogical components and contexts are constantly evolving, expanding, and shifting. The evolving nature of these pedagogical components and contexts, in turn, incite the building of new types of pedagogies. For instance, new pedagogies appeared with the arrival of the Internet in the 1990s (e.g., online teaching and learning) and currently newer pedagogies are emerging with social media and cloud computing.

Similarly, as today’s society is transforming into a “network society” (Castells, 1996; van Dijk, 2006) and “knowledge society” (Bell, 1976; Stehr, 1994) while embracing the “knowledge economy” (Powell & Snellman, 2004), there is a demand for new types of pedagogies that promote knowledge building and advancement (Delanty, 2001; Hargreaves, 2003). With the rapid globalization and the proliferation of social networking technologies (e.g., social media), new types of learning communities are surfacing, where people from all around the world create and share their ideas, stories, and knowledges. These learning communities are the networked knowledge communities (NKCs) that proactively participate in building and advancing knowledges. Since the notion of knowledge is at the core of pedagogies, NKCs provide new pedagogical contexts. Therefore, as I have argued elsewhere (Gurung, 2013), the notion of pedagogies should be framed as “emerging pedagogies” so as to capture the ever-changing pedagogical components and contexts.

In this chapter, I discuss the conceptual and theoretical aspects of emerging pedagogies in the contexts of networked knowledge communities. The NKCs are defined as the various types of knowledge building communities formed within the interplay of three emerging contexts – knowledge society, network society, and knowledge economy. The NKCs are conceptualized and used as the pedagogical contexts in order to capture the concurrently evolving contexts. First, I look into the notions of networked knowledge communities and emerging pedagogies by analyzing their basic concepts, structures, and components. Then, I move on to exploring possibilities of emerging pedagogies within the context of NKCs. Pedagogical possibilities are explored using “rethinking” and “interplay” as the conceptual frameworks (Gurung, 2013). Finally, I discuss the pedagogical implications of emerging pedagogies, specifically focusing on teachers’ knowledge bases in the NKCs.