Communities of practice: Expanding professional roles to promote reflection and shared inquiry

The field of early intervention continues to experience challenges in conne cting theory and practice, reducing professional isolation, and translating principles into action. An examination of the way we perceive and enact pr ofessional roles reveals their limited scope in addressing these challenges . This article introduces the concept of expanding roles to include collabo rative reflective inquiry within communities of practice as one way to refo rm professional practices. We suggest that reflection within communities of practice not only extends our own understanding, insight, and command of t he situations in which we work, but also holds the potential to advance the field as a whole.