Society and the multiple communities of higher education

Professional interests, affiliations, roles, and conditions of service that identify and separate groups have long been established within university traditions. As new social and institutional imperatives emerge, however, professional comfort zones are disturbed. Traditional communities of practice are gradually becoming more open and more participatory. This paper investigates the possibilities and complexities of community building from national and institutional perspectives. The communities created by means of curriculum design decisions, conversations between authors and readers of teaching and learning texts, and knowledge domains which are either legitimised or rejected will also be explored. The University of South Africa (UNISA) will be used as an example to illustrate some of the challenges presented by the changing conditions of institutions and society.