3b Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". (Wenger circa 2007)

Communities of practice have been around since the start of people storytelling to eachother.This term was developed by social scientists Jean Lave and Etienne Wegner (1991) as learning through interracting with a group of people who all share the same passion for what they do. It is about building relationships with other people in order to learn from it. You have to be proactive in interracting which takes time- it involves practice, actually doing. Sharing experineces, stories and ways to improve practice with another dancer on a regular basis might seem not very important, but through engaging with others in this way can actually be become valuable learning. For example I have learnt from my friend's experience as mentioned in my previous blog, Critical Reflection on sources of information, about how important it is to search a company before auditioning.

Lave and Wegner' communities of practice theory has developed over the years to a new concept in higher education and also in organisational development.  Our participation in this BAPP degree is one of a community of practice as we are all learning through blogging, sharing ideas and debating them with eachother. What this idea does is questions the thought that learning has a beginning and an end and argues that is can come from everyday life- things we observe, hear, see or read about. This is something I feel Adesola was getting at with her comment on my blog 2d Inquiry.

Eduard C Lindeman (1985-1953) argued that learning is a part of daily living. When I thought about this idea I realsied it is something we have been doing from our childhool school days. Interracting with other students at school, sharing experineces and stories was all a way of understanding the world we live in and learning at the same time. But 'situated learning' (Lave and Wagner) is not the same as 'learning by doing' (John Dewey Experiential Education).  In higher education we need to reflect on our practice in order to learn from it.

I feel that in my professional practice I have not only learnt from social situations but they also can have a big impact on my career. When joining a new company for example I rely in the knowledge of others who have been there for years to find out more about the company and what might be instore for me. But as Lave and Wegner point out the danger is that information can be generalized, wrong or unrealated to professional practice. For a community of practice to be of use people must particpate fully.



"Engagement is taking part - joining in - it is keeping a high energy level - it is being seen and developing your professional presence - it is about recognising the processes through which you can learn in the workplace." (Paula Nottingham Blog on Updating blogs and engagement, 2010)

All must participate to the full in order for everyone to gain benefit.

        Learning is in the relationships between people. As McDermott (in Murphy 1999:17)

I found this quote interesting as I had never thought of learning in this way before. For me, learning was information passed on from say teacher to student and they have learnt something. This however raises the idea that through say a conversation learning can take place. The way we are blogging ideas and commenting on people's blogs is a way of learning in itself rather than being told something.
To summarize, communities of practice can come in all sizes and forms. Some can be really small, some large, some mainly online, some face-to-face. After doing further reaserch on this I have reaslied how important it is to engage fully in our professional practice communities and be pro-active. It has challenged the way I think about learning and that everyday things- a conversation with a friends, reading an article, watching TV can all be relevant to our professional development and learning. I think this is where the journal writing comes in too. Everyday experiences may not seem relevant at the time but when you look back and reflect on what you have written you might find you learn a lot.

References:
http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm
Lindeman, E - http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lind.htm
Intelligence Reframed. Multiple intelligences for the 21st century, New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (1993)