It is now being increasingly applied to virtual or e-learning: learners communicating with each other and perhaps a tutor on-line can develop virtual communities of practice. The model has also been successfully applied in considering apprenticeships—the new apprentice starts off as a newcomer and is gradually initiated into the community, eventually becoming a central member of the group.
Thus new learners in the community start off, in a sense, on the edge of the group and are said to be at a stage of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ (see Lave and Wenger, 1991). As their involvement gets deeper, they become more centrally involved and they move inwards from the periphery; they learn the language and the practices of the community.
The ‘community of practice’ idea is based on the views of learning theorists such as Vygotsky, who argued that social interaction, joint activity and conversation with others are central to developing knowledge, skill and understanding. Communication, and the community, are the key. Learning is social. Lave and Wenger called this model situated learning: all learning is located or situated in a community, a context.
The knowledge or skill (the cognition) developed in that context is ‘situated cognition’. It may well be the case that the cognition is so situated and context dependent that it does not transfer to other situations. They argue that learning communities are everywhere: at work, at school, at home, in the youth centre; they exist on the street perhaps, and maybe among gangs and tribes. Some groups are formal and tightly organised—others are more flexible and fluid, without clear rules and regulations. In some communities we are core members, in others we are on the periphery.
Wenger (1999) argued that three key features define a community of practice: 1 what it is about: its enterprise and purpose as jointly understood by the members (even if not written down); 2 how it works: the rules of engagement, either written or unwritten; 3 what it has produced: this might be skills, routines, vocabulary or even artefacts and resources—a ‘shared repertoire’.
Over time, relationships develop leading to a sense of joint enterprise and identity, and common practices that bind people together. The notion of communities of practice is perhaps most important in considering the learning that occurs out-of-school or informally. This can occur in clubs, groups, gangs, networks, and associations or indeed in any setting where people can interact and engage socially—either on-line or face-to-face.
In many ways a student’s learning in these communities—and the recognition, identity and self-esteem they may accrue from them—will be as important and motivating as learning in a more formal setting such as a school. Teachers cannot ignore these communities of practice. Communities may also have their sinister side. Some can be highly exclusive, restrictive and gender-biased, such as the community of steel workers or other occupational groups.
Other groups may exhibit strange practices such as bullying or the initiation ‘rites’ of some apprenticeships where mechanics are sent to search for a lefthanded screwdriver; whilst new members in organisations such as the police or army may have been bullied and victimised for their accent or ethnicity. Other groups depend on their own social or cultural capital for their success in having influence and being exclusive (e.g. ‘old boy’ networks). The idea of a community of practice is useful when considering the social and the situated aspects of learning, and in considering some of the weaknesses of formal education, but it should not be over-romanticised.
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