Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning & Identity

Etienne Wenger

Kathleen LerouxUniversity of Ottawa

CMN 5150

Presentation OverviewPresentation OverviewINTRODUCTION

PART 1: PRACTICE•Practice as meaning•Practice as community•Practice as learning•Practice as boundary•Practice as locality

PART 11: IDENTITY•Identity in practice•Identities of participation and non-participation •Modes of belonging•Identification and negotiability

IntroductionIntroduction

A theory of learning as a process of social participation

Analysis centered on the “informal communities of practice that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time”

Notion of practice refers to level of social structure that reflects shared learning

“The concept of practice connotes doing, but not just doing in and of itself. It is doing in a historical and social context that gives structure and meaning to what we do.” (p.47)

Concept of practice includes both the explicit and tacit

Practice as meaningPractice as meaning

Fig.1.0 The duality of participation and reification

Practice as communityPractice as communityMutual engagementJoint enterpriseShared repertoire

Fig. 1.1 Dimensions of practice as the property of a community

Practice as learningPractice as learningThe development of practice “is a matter of sustaining enough mutual engagement in pursuing an enterprise together to share some significant learning” (p.86)

Shared histories of learningReification vs. participationLearning in practice

Practice as boundaryPractice as boundary Boundary as discontinuities between those who have been

participating in communities of practice and those who have not; lines of distinction between members and non-members

Duality of boundary relations

Two types of connections that create bridges across boundaries and link communities of practice with rest of world :

1. Boundary objects2. Brokering

Boundary encounters◦ One-on-one conversation◦ Immersion◦ Delegations

Practice as a connection◦ Boundary practices◦ Overlaps◦ Peripheries

Practice as localityPractice as locality

Community of practice

Constellations of communities of practice◦Indicators a community of practice has formed

Identity in practiceIdentity in practiceWenger’s perspective of identity “does

justice to the lived experience of identity while recognizing its social character- it is the social, the cultural, the historical with a human face” (p.145)

Parallels between practice and identity◦ Identity as negotiated experience◦ Identity as community membership◦ Identity as learning trajectory◦ Identity as nexus of multimembership◦ Identity as a relation between the local

and global

Participation and non-Participation and non-participationparticipation

Not only do we produce our identities through practices we engage in, we also define ourselves through practices we do not engage in

Interaction of participation and non-participation◦ Peripherality◦ Marginality

Institutional non-participation◦ Non-participation as compromise◦ Non-participation as strategy◦ Non-participation as cover◦ Non-participation as practice

Modes of belongingModes of belongingNotion of belonging extended beyond local communities of practice

Three modes of belonging:◦Engagement◦Imagination◦Alignment

Identification and Identification and negotiabilitynegotiability

Identity formation as a dual process of identification and negotiability

IdentificationNegotiability

◦Economies of meaning◦Ownership of meaning

Inherent tension between the dual process◦Internal vs. external

Related LinksRelated Linkshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjw0YoqpEq8http://www.ewenger.com/theory/http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/JALArticleDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=16217http://www.timhoogenboom.nl/?p=287http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htmhttp://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-

6963-10-3.pdfhttp://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/

lss.shtmlhttp://www.learning-theories.com/communities-of-

practice-lave-and-wenger.htmlhttp://www.jstor.org/pss/40248418http://www0.hku.hk/curric/amytsui/bk_reviews/

docs/The_complexities_of_identity_formation.pdf