The Continuing Professional Education of Police Chaplains as a community of practice

This paper presents preliminary findings of an ethnographic doctoral study of police chaplaincy in Australia focusing on strategies for understanding and cultivating a community of practice. It argues that police chaplains are engaged in a complex community of practice with overlapping demands. Whilst they share notions of purpose and a conceptual value system, developing appropriate ways to understand and balance these demands has been a difficult process, especially since Continuing Professional Education (CPE) has been a scarcity for these practitioners. Consequently, there is little understanding of police chaplains’ needs for CPE to facilitate their roles. One major critical success factor emerging from this research is the need for a functioning system of CPE. Using results from a written survey, completed by a representative sample, and findings from fieldwork observations and interviews with police chaplains in New South Wales (NSW), a number of key factors for understanding and sustaining this community of practice are identified and discussed. These issues include the role of a chaplain, geographical location and work of police chaplains across multiple communities, and the emergence of identity. In addition, strategies for learning and barriers to developing further education and training are discussed. Finally, preliminary findings on criteria for creating a fair, well-resourced system of CPE for a geographically dispersed community of practice are proposed.