Constructing collaboration: How communities of practice shape interprofessional learning in education and social work programmes in higher education

Abstract

This article focuses on how higher education, in four degree programmes, engages in collaboration: teacher education, special educational needs counselling, social work, and health-care counselling, within a context where current welfare and education assume interprofessional collaboration. The aim is to analyse how collaboration is conceptualised, enacted, and becomes embedded in the programmes, and how interprofessional learning (IPL) is oriented in relation to higher education’s role in sustaining a democratic and sustainable society. The empirical material consists of semi-structured interviews with program coordinators. The ‘communities of practice’ (CoP) and democracy perspectives conceptualise collaboration and IPL as social practices and democratic processes. The analysis shows that collaboration in higher education is divergently conceptualised, indicating the absence of a shared conceptual basis, enacted in different ways, and serves distinct professional functions. The opportunities for IPL vary considerably: some programmes integrate structured collaborative activities, while others rely on traditional teaching or postpone collaboration until professional practice. The embedding of collaboration in programmes signals democratic potential, yet requires alignment with programme visions, professional identities, and institutional structures that enable communication, autonomy, and shared responsibility for a sustainable democratic welfare society.