The Network of Centres and Institutes
in Education (NCIE) was created in 2002 by the Faculty
of Education Dean, Dr. Rob Tierney. It brings
several research centres and institutes under one administrative
umbrella within the faculty.
The NCIE administrative team provides
support services for the various research and program
activities of centres and institutes within the network.
While each centre/institute in NCIE
has its own unique mandate, purpose, and focus, their
common features have served to bring them together. Other
collaborative groups may join the Network in the future.
The Network may be seen as a "generative
space" where faculty and graduate students might
come together around sets of shared research interests
and problems that often transcend departmental boundaries.
One of the primary roles of Centres in the Faculty of
Education is to undertake and promote a variety of research
and communication activities around a focussed set of
issues, which define that particular Centre or Institute.
By creating a network of units within the Faculty of Education,
Dr. Tierney is seeking to truly promote and nurture the
type of social organizational structure that Jean Lave
and Etienne Wenger have referred to as a "Community
of Practice."
