Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and IdentityThis book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are. The primary unit of analysis of this process is neither the individual nor social institutions, but the informal 'communities of practice' that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time. To give a social account of learning, the theory explores in a systematic way the intersection of issues of community, social practice, meaning, and identity. The result is a broad framework for thinking about learning as a process of social participation. This ambitious but thoroughly accessible framework has relevance for the practitioner as well as the theoretician, presented with all the breadth, depth, and rigor necessary to address such a complex and yet profoundly human topic. |
From inside the book
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Page xix
... discourses of learning and to their effects on the ways we design for learning. By proposing a framework that ... discourse of the institution. A social theory of learning is therefore not exclusively an academic enterprise. While ...
... discourses of learning and to their effects on the ways we design for learning. By proposing a framework that ... discourse of the institution. A social theory of learning is therefore not exclusively an academic enterprise. While ...
Page xxi
... discourses, and history. They seek underlying explanatory structures that account for social patterns and tend to view action as a mere realization of these structures in specific circumstances. The most extreme of them deny agency or ...
... discourses, and history. They seek underlying explanatory structures that account for social patterns and tend to view action as a mere realization of these structures in specific circumstances. The most extreme of them deny agency or ...
Page 9
... discourses on the topic we want to address . The farther you aim , the more an initial error matters . As we become more ambitious in attempts to organize our lives and our environment , the implications of our perspectives , theories ...
... discourses on the topic we want to address . The farther you aim , the more an initial error matters . As we become more ambitious in attempts to organize our lives and our environment , the implications of our perspectives , theories ...
Page 11
... discourse of the institution . A social theory of learning is therefore not exclusively an academic enterprise . While its perspective can indeed inform our academic inves- tigations , it is also relevant to our daily actions , our ...
... discourse of the institution . A social theory of learning is therefore not exclusively an academic enterprise . While its perspective can indeed inform our academic inves- tigations , it is also relevant to our daily actions , our ...
Page 12
... discourses , and history . They seek underlying explanatory structures that account for social patterns and tend to view action as a mere realization of these structures in specific circumstances . The most extreme of them deny agency ...
... discourses , and history . They seek underlying explanatory structures that account for social patterns and tend to view action as a mere realization of these structures in specific circumstances . The most extreme of them deny agency ...
Contents
Meaning | 51 |
Negotiation of meaning | 52 |
Participation | 55 |
Reification | 57 |
The duality of meaning | 62 |
Community | 72 |
Mutual engagement | 73 |
Joint enterprise | 77 |
Engagement | 174 |
Imagination | 175 |
Alignment | 178 |
Belonging and communities | 181 |
The work of belonging | 183 |
Identification and negotiability | 188 |
Identification | 191 |
Negotiability | 197 |
Shared repertoire | 82 |
Negotiating meaning in practice | 84 |
Learning | 86 |
The dual constitution of histories | 87 |
Histories of learning | 93 |
Generational discontinuities | 99 |
Boundary | 103 |
The duality of boundary relations | 104 |
Practice as connection | 113 |
The landscape of practice | 118 |
Locality | 122 |
Constellations of practices | 126 |
The local and the global | 131 |
Knowing in practice | 134 |
Identity | 143 |
A focus on identity | 145 |
Some assumptions to avoid | 146 |
Structure of Part II | 147 |
Identity in practice | 149 |
participation and reification | 150 |
Community membership | 152 |
Trajectories | 153 |
Nexus of multimembership | 158 |
Localglobal interplay | 161 |
Participation and nonparticipation | 164 |
Identities of nonparticipation | 165 |
Sources of participation and nonparticipation | 167 |
Institutional nonparticipation | 169 |
Modes of belonging | 173 |
The dual nature of identity | 207 |
Social ecologies of identity | 211 |
Learning communities | 214 |
Epilogue Design | 223 |
Design for learning | 225 |
Design and practice | 228 |
Structure of the Epilogue | 229 |
Learning architectures | 230 |
Dimensions | 231 |
Components | 236 |
A design framework | 239 |
Organizations | 241 |
Dimensions of organizational design | 242 |
Organization learning and practice | 249 |
Organizational engagement | 250 |
Organizational imagination | 257 |
Organizational alignment | 260 |
Education | 263 |
Dimensions of educational design | 264 |
a learning architecture | 270 |
Educational engagement | 271 |
Educational imagination | 272 |
Educational alignment | 273 |
Educational resources | 275 |
Notes | 279 |
Bibliography | 301 |
Index | 309 |
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Common terms and phrases
ability actions activities alignment Alinsu argued Ariel artifacts aspects become boundary objects broader Chapter claims processors Coda communities of prac communities of practice complex connections constitute context coordination create defined develop dimensions discontinuities discourses discuss Donald Schön duality economy of meaning educational design engagement in practice enterprise experience of meaning focus forms of participation global iden identification and negotiability identity of participation imagination individual inherent instance institutional institutionalized interaction interpretation involved issues Jean Lave John Seely Brown kind knowledge learning community lives membership ment modes of belonging multimembership munities of practice mutual engagement negotiating meaning negotiation of meaning newcomers organization organizational organizational learning ownership of meaning participation and non-participation participation and reification peripheral person perspective production reflect regime of competence relations repertoire requires sense shared practice social theory specific structure talk tice tion trajectories understand worksheet