Communities of practice are generally accepted as locales of engagement, learning and development. This paper reflects on a case study of the evolution of a community of practice amongst staff in a university School of Policing Studies. The case study reveals the requirement for space, in a physical, temporal and timely sense, for open discussion and the formation of shared understanding and trust as key stepping stones to the formation of community. Within this case study there is evidence of success in the development of staff that is directly attributable to the evolution of the community. The process of evolution in this case study may present as a model for the evolution of communities of practice that is transferrable to other contexts.

Keywords: communities of practice, academic development, partnerships