Participation In Communities Of Practice Research Articles

Impact of employees' participation in communities of practice on individual, community, and organisational performance: a case study at PT PLN (Persero) Distribusi Jakarta Raya and Tangerang

This research aims to evaluate the impact of CoP participation for individual, community, and organisation performance, and to find the types of participation providing most benefits to PT PLN (Persero) Distribusi Jakarta Raya and Tangerang. The data was collected by sending questionnaires to the employees in ten company areas, which resulted as much as 238 copies. The collected data was processed with partial least square (PLS). The result of this research showed that CoP proved to provide benefits for individuals and to the community as well as the organisation indirectly. Moreover, types of participation that provides most benefits to performance are work barrier discussion, followed by success story discussion. However, career development discussion has not been proven to give benefit to organisation.

Impact of employees' participation in communities of practice on individual, community, and organisational performance: a case study at PT PLN (Persero) Distribusi Jakarta Raya and Tangerang

Impact of employees' participation in communities of practice on individual, community, and organisational performance: a case study at PT PLN (Persero) Distribusi Jakarta Raya and Tangerang

Preservice Teachers’ Learning to Plan Intellectually Challenging Tasks

This study explores how and under which conditions preservice secondary science teachers (PSTs) engage in effective planning practices that incorporate intellectually challenging tasks into lessons. Drawing upon a situative perspective on learning, eight PSTs’ trajectories of participation in communities of practice are examined with a focus on planning throughout student teaching. Data include 32 sets of teaching artifacts, interviews with PSTs, interviews with methods course instructors, and interviews with mentor teachers. The analyses show that instructional tasks observed at the beginning of lessons link to the ways in which PSTs engage in the three interrelated processes of (a) framing instructional goals, (b) constructing a lesson scenario, and (c) addressing problems of practice. The consistencies and changes observed in the PSTs’ trajectories of planning reveal the dynamic, responsive, and contentious nature of planning situated in local contexts. Three implications for designing productive learning opportunities for PSTs are discussed.

Young People’s Use of New Media: Learning Through Participation in Communities of Practice

This study explored young people’s use of new media and the learning that they experience through participation in shared online practices such as web browsing, using social media and gaming. The findings of this study revealed that the research participants have rich new media access and they engage in a variety of digital practices at an extended period of time at home. Their use of new media often involves other associates. The research participants’ mutual engagement with other associates based on the shared digital practices that they participate in, the joint enterprise and shared repertoire indicate their belonging to communities of practice (COPs). Learning occurs as result of the research participants’ active participation in shared new media practices with their associates. This kind of learning is social, and it takes place with or without them noticing it.

‘I never feel alone in my classroom’: teacher professional growth within a blended community of practice

Well-designed face-to-face and virtual communities of practice provide opportunities for teachers to learn, grow as professionals and make changes to their practice with the support of peers. However, as more K–12 teachers become Connected Educators and act as conduits between online spaces and communities in their schools, the boundaries between face-to-face and online communities of practice are blurred. While increasingly more teachers are engaging in blended learning opportunities, there is a dearth of research about how blended communities of practice shape K–12 teachers’ learning and professional growth. This manuscript reports the findings of a qualitative study that examined teachers’ experiences in a blended community of practice through in-depth interviews with 26 K–12 teachers. Data analysis suggests that multiple means of engagement, face-to-face learning activities and leadership roles are critical elements that shape participation and learning in a blended community of practice. Additionally, participation in a blended community of practice creates reciprocal growth opportunities, in which teachers can develop as professionals across multiple domains (e.g. individual, classroom, school, blended community of practice), while also shaping the growth of these domains. These findings have implications for shaping the future development and research of teacher learning in blended communities of practice.

Despite Adults: Learning Experiences on the Tapajós River Banks

AbstractIn this article, I analyze learning practices that take place in the everyday life (outside of school or other institutional setting) of two villages in the Amazonian region of the Tapajós River basin in Brazil. These practices closely match the main attributes of what has been referred to as a “learning through intent participation” (Rogoff et al. 2003), or “learning as progressive participation in communities of practice” (Lave and Wenger 1991) model—with one important difference. While the child learners may be keen participant observers, the experts display little interest in collaborating with novices or evince much empathy for them. I will describe and analyze the relationship between the rather disengaged experts and the eager novices, showing that this process can only be understood if we consider broader aspects of social relationships among peoples of the Tapajós.

Supporting dietitians to work in Aboriginal health: Qualitative evaluation of a Community of Practice mentoring circle.

This paper explores the experience of dietitians participating in a Community of Practice designed to support their work with Aboriginal communities. The Community of Practice for dietitians working with Aboriginal communities ran for 12 months, starting in May 2014. Six-weekly mentoring sessions were held using Skype, with conversation aided by a facilitator. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were held with all participants at the conclusion of the Community of Practice. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Thirteen dietitians participated in the Community of Practice and an in-depth, semi-structured interview. Four key themes were identified: (i) Aboriginal health practice requires a different way of 'knowing', 'being' and 'working'; (ii) Community of Practice is a safe place to discuss, debrief and explore ideas that are not safe elsewhere; (iii) participation in Community of Practice contributed to workforce retention in the Aboriginal health sector; and (iv) participation in Community of Practice contributed to dietitians changing their practice and feeling confident to do so. By increasing confidence and opportunities for safe discussion, Community of Practice appears to be a useful model of Continuing Professional Development to support dietitians working in Aboriginal health.

Learning in a Twitter-based community of practice: an exploration of knowledge exchange as a motivation for participation in #hcsmca

ABSTRACTThrough participation in communities of practice (CoPs), those with a common interest can share in learning about and improving practices within their domain (Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/theory/). As CoPs move online, there is increased potential for more expansive and diverse membership. By providing a space in which a global population of members can engage with each other and access and contribute information and knowledge, social media may be used to support online CoPs. Although not originally designed for community development, Twitter is one social media platform that is being used in innovative ways to support communities. This study explores learning as a motivation for participating in the successful Twitter-based CoP Health Care Social Media Canada (#hcsmca). #hcsmca uses tweet chats (planned synchronous discussions aggregated by a hashtag) to engage in robust dialogues associated with learning and knowledge creation. Interviews with 24 #hcsmca community members show that learning is a fundamental motivator for participation in the community. Twitter was found to be a platform that enables learning for #hcsmca members, albeit not universally. Four thematic elements of learning in #hcsmca were identified. For interviewees, learning was a motivation for participating in the community because they were able to access and share expertise, discover who knows what within the healthcare community, access novel information through interactions with members who have diverse personal and professional backgrounds, and learn information that they could apply in their personal and professional lives.

Tools for Reflection: Video-Based Reflection Within a Preservice Community of Practice

Current reform in science education calls for teachers to understand student thinking within a lesson to effectively address students’ needs (NRC in A framework for K-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 2012; NRC in Guide to implementing the Next Generation Science Standards. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2015). This study investigates how to scaffold preservice teachers with learning to attend to students’ thinking for the purpose of guiding curricular decisions. The study focuses on one team teaching a science unit during their early field experience. We sought to understand how participants’ thoughts and abilities changed through participation in a moderated community of practice using video of their own teaching as a reflective tool. We examined how these changes affected both their classroom practice and their decision-making for future lessons. Evidence shows growth in participants’ ability to identify opportunities to elicit, assess, and use students’ thinking to guide instructional decisions. Implications for use of the approach used in this study to begin developing novice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science are discussed.

Apprenticeship in science research: whom does it serve?

This article advances the thinking of Thompson, Conaway and Dolan’s “Undergraduate students’ development of social, cultural, and human capital in a network research experience”. Set against a background of change in the biosciences, and participation, it firstly explores ideas of what it means to be a scientist, then challenges the current view of the apprenticeship model of career trajectory, before going onto to consider the nature of participation in communities of practice and issues related to underrepresented minority groups in science. Central to this analysis is the place that the notion of habitus plays in thinking about shaping future scientists and the how this can both support, but also suppress, opportunities for individuals through a maintenance of the status quo.

Moving beyond case studies: applying social network analysis to study learning-as-participation

We argue that social network analysis is a useful methodology to study and to extend scholarly knowledge on learning through legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. We first review work on legitimate peripheral participation and show that research on this topic currently focusses on the adoption of practices. Then we describe the theoretical and methodological foundations of social network analysis and suggest a new perspective on legitimate peripheral participation, focussing on the increasing relations of newcomers in communities of practice. We present examples of studies that use social network analysis to study legitimate peripheral participation. We conclude that social network analysis can enable us to make inferences about legitimate peripheral participation across specific settings and communities. For the future, the challenge is to advance this methodology to relate dynamically changing patterns of legitimate peripheral participation to emerging and changing epistemic practices of a community.

Central practitioners’ developing legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice for changing schools

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p>As new technologies continue to shape society, there has been a greater need for communities of practice to facilitate changing teaching and learning practices through technology in schools. Legitimate peripheral participation through these communities of practice has become an essential means to spread and support this technology integration movement, but understanding this participation in communities has been limited. This paper reports on a study of how central practitioners developed legitimate peripheral participation episodes in an inter-organisational, international community of practice. It describes the qualitative, case study approach to the study, and outlines the community of practice, its central practitioners and the legitimate peripheral participation episodes in which they participated. The paper presents and discusses essential central practitioner individual and organisational factors which enabled the continuity and change of legitimate peripheral participation episodes in the community. Individual factors to emerge from the study include central practitioners’ desire for continuous professional development and individual agency. Organisational factors include an organisation’s distinctive mission, its distinctive roles, and constant negotiation, including conflicts of interest, between organisations and their members. The paper concludes with considerations of the value and relevance of legitimate peripheral participation in an inter-organisational community of practice for changing practices.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 28.35pt 0pt; line-height: normal;"> </p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>

Learning through Interactions: Improving Project Management through Communities of Practice

Communities of practice are a possible mechanism for improving knowledge sharing among project managers, both within and between organizations. Based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we theorize a model of participation intensity in communities of practice by project managers and explore the use of Web 2.0 technologies to increase this participation. Using structural equation modeling, we test the research model and find that the factors of reputation, enjoyment, and management support impact the participation intensity of project managers in communities of practice. However, we do not find support for the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on participation intensity. This study provides evidence that participation in communities of practice can result in individual benefits for the project manager, as well as in more far-reaching organizational benefits.

Identity and Participation in UK Universities: An Exploration of Student Experiences and University Practices

Contemporary sociocultural theory argues that learning can be understood as identity shift as a result of participation in communities of practice (Wenger 1998). This process is not a straightforward, linear route. Rather, people enter a new community and bring with them their identities that have developed over time and place and so the new community and its practices are experienced and evaluated in terms of their past and their present preoccupations. It therefore follows that learning is idiosyncratic as it is constructed through the interaction of a multiplicity of personal meanings. Such theoretical understandings challenge institutional approaches which impose rigidity of practice and which identify student needs through stratification by social label such as “international student” or “mature student.” In this paper we will present data from interviews and observations with diverse undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of UK higher education institutions and demonstrate that what all students need is flexible practices in order to enact their identities and make enabling interpersonal and learning relationships which allow for successful study. Our findings contest models that call for focus on artificially constructed social groups that assume homogeneity in identity, which, in reality, do not exist.

Experiences of Intensive English Learners: Motivations, Imagined Communities, and Identities

Based on a widely held belief that immersion provides the best language learning opportunities, a large number of Asian students go to English-speaking countries to improve their English language skills. These strongly motivated learners arrive in a new country with a bag of expectations, learner beliefs, and imaginations about the new community they are about to enter. However, learners are often faced with a set of challenges with respect to language learning opportunities and identity negotiations in the new community. Against this background, the present study examined three cases of Korean learners enrolled in an intensive English program (IEP) in the U.S. The aim of the study was to understand distinct struggles experienced by this learner population. The study found that the participants had certain motivations and imaginations about the new communities, but they experienced numerous challenges and struggles particularly with regard to opportunities for authentic communications in English and identity conflicts. The paper discusses pedagogical implications for an effective IEP curriculum to allow students more opportunities for legitimate periphery participation in the target language communities of practice.

“Even Though I Am Married, I Have a Dream”: Constructing L2 Gendered Identities Through Narratives of Departure and Arrival

This paper reports on the findings of a multiple case study to show how 3 women constructed meaning around the processes of L2 learning and migration and (re)constructed identities through their participation in new communities of practice (CoPs). Data sources include formal classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and the participants’ self-designed photo narratives, which were presented orally, then digitally recorded and transcribed for analysis. The findings that emerged across these women’s cases illustrate how gendered identities are constructed and (re)negotiated as learners discursively interact with a range of socially and culturally embedded narratives. The author aims to show how, through multimodal L2 narratives, the women engaged in an interpretive practice that allowed them to construct empowered L2 identities and understand the disruptions and conflicts they encountered as spaces for positive change.

Youth apprenticeships in Canada: on their inferior status despite skilled labour shortages

In Canada, youth apprenticeships have been promoted as an educational alternative that leads to the development of valuable skills, allows for the opportunity to earn an income while learning and helps youth to gain a head start into lucrative, creative and in-demand careers. Yet, these programmes have remained rather marginal and continue to be perceived as being of lower-status compared to traditional post-secondary educational pathways, such as those leading to university or community college. In this paper, we draw on interview data with former youth apprentices in the province of Ontario to explore their reasons for entering apprenticeships in high school, their experiences in them and their own perceptions about the status and social recognition of apprenticeships. We suggest that policies regarding apprenticeship programmes in Canada need to expand their focus. While emphasis is currently placed on recruiting students by highlighting relatively utilitarian benefits, we argue that more focus needs to be placed on the training offered to apprentices including the commitment of employers to provide quality training on the job, the integration of classroom and on-the-job training and the opportunity for apprentices to move from partial to full participation in communities of practice.

Educational policy or practice? Traversing the conceptual divide between subject knowledge, pedagogy and teacher identity in England

This research paper is framed by concerns about recent UK Government policy regarding the training of mathematics and science teachers in England and discusses how two cohorts of pre-service teachers negotiated the development of a professional identity while undertaking subject-specific training. The data reported upon were garnered in two ways; through an evaluation survey that received quantitative and qualitative responses from 159 teacher trainees and through focus groups conducted with 40 trainees. In the paper, the authors take the concept of ‘participation in communities of practice’ as a departure point to explore how trainees demonstrate their development of professional identities as chemistry, maths or physics teachers. In the conclusion, the authors consider the implications of the findings for pre-service teachers and teacher trainers given the current education climate of financial austerity being experienced across Europe.

Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice: Participation Support Structures for Newcomers in Faculty Student Councils

Participating in communities of practice (CoPs) is an important way of learning. For newcomers in such communities, the learning process can be described as legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). Although a body of knowledge on LPP has been accumulated from qualitative case studies, mostly focusing on the use of practices, the concrete mechanisms that shape the LPP process have not yet been systematically analyzed. In this study, we examined participation support structures with a focus on activities that senior CoP members demonstrate to foster newcomers’ participation. The use of 8 distinct participation support structures was identified in interviews with experienced members of faculty student councils. A hierarchical linear model based on data from 68 newcomers in 14 faculty student councils was computed. The model showed that in addition to exposure time and CoP size, 2 participation support structures (recruitment strategies and accessibility of community knowledge) were predictive of the newcomers’ level of participation. We conclude that senior members’ specific participation support structures can facilitate or hinder newcomers’ participation in CoPs and that the original LPP approach needs to be enhanced by taking participation support structures into account.

Social Media in Union Communications: An International Study with UNI Global Union Affiliates

AbstractThis article assesses the use of social media in union communications based on an international survey with 149 unions affiliated with UNI Global Union. High expectations of union modernization, leadership and pressures from members are likely to drive the agenda of social media within unions. However, the actual use of different channels is based on organizational variables such as membership base and participation in communities of practice. Beliefs about the anticipated benefits and risks of social media were not found to be influential in these early assessments. Implications for union communication strategies are discussed.