Fuller, A., Hodkinson, H, et al.

Fuller, A., Hodkinson, H., Hodkinson, P., & Unwin, L.:

Learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice: A reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning



The authors use their own research to reassess the strengths and weaknesses of Lave & Wenger's theorisation of communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation.

Background:

• Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger developed a model of learning in the early 1990s that focused on situated learning in communities of practice.
• Their central tenet is that learning is social and comes largely from our experience of participation in everyday life, and especially within special communities of practice.
• These communities of practice are not just repositories of knowledge (p.52 ), but an intrinsic conditon for the existence of knowledge.In some of these communities, we are core members. In others, we are at the periphery.
• Legitimate Peripheral Participation is the learning process by which those new to the community (novices) acquire knowledge and understanding, and move towards the core of the community, eventually becoming a more powerful, full-status, core members.

Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; About the site [On-line: UK] retrieved 12 July 2011 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/about.htm


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• This theorisation of learning became very influential in the field of adult and workplace education, in addition to situated learning's original ethnographic and anthropological background.
• Communities of Practice have imprecise boundaries and inherent power strucutres that lead to great differentiation between various communities, as well as different experiences for people within these communities.
• Communities of Practice also involve a dynamic tension between novices & veterans.
• The idea of communities of practice has been adapted by a number of workpalces as part of the "new capitalism"; workplaces where there is greater employee involvement and feature things like self-managed teams, flexible scheduling, and flatter organizational structures.

Research:

• Two studies on workplace learning were conducted by the authors, using the lens of legitimate peripheral participation and communities of pratice.
• Fuller & Unwin's research focused on the Modern Apprenticeship program in the UK steel industry.http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/
  
  • Project followed apprentices in three very different companies in the industry, which held different expectations for their apprentices and had different past experiences with the program.
  • As legitimate peripheral participants, the apprentices were given the opportunity to learn by engaging in activities and work processes alongside more experienced employees.
  • Their data suggests that their participants' experience varied greatly and bore little resemblance to one another. There were significant differences in formal education expectations, time spent on the shop floor, team-building exercises, pay, power, interaction with veteran colleagues, and numerous other areas.
  • By the conclusion of the apprenticeship, some participants had become full members of the community, but not all, and definitely not inthe same manner.
• Hodkinson & Hodkinson's research looked at schoolteachers' workplace learning in the UK.
  • Their research involved teachers in four subject areas at two different schools over three years.
  • The teachers involved included heads of departments, well-established teachers, newcomers, newly qualified teachers, and student teachers.
  • All four departments were considered successful, although they had very different working cultures.
  • Hodkinson & Hoskinson found that the individual stories of these teachers highlighted "the significance of developing biographies of individual workers, as members of communities of practice." (p. 63)

Summary:

• "Organisational structures and the working of power relations within the organisations were of central significance in determining the existence of communities of practice, their nature, and their boundaries." (p. 63)
• The expectation that communities of practice would exist within a cycle of continuity, constantly refreshing and renewing itself, does not always match the workplace.
• Lave & Wenger's attempt to "stretch legitimate peripheral participation to cover all workplace learnings is unconvincing." (p. 65). Too much learning goes on after members achieve core status in their communities. Experienced workers can also learn through their engagement with novices.
• Lave & Wenger are "overly dismissive of the role 'teaching' plays", and are similarly negative towards formal, structured education. These still hold value as part of the learning process, as the apprenticeship research shows.
• Lave & Wenger tend to treat their learners as blank slates; their identities and biographies only matter as part of their new community of practice. More attention should be paid to the learner's beliefs, understandings, skills, and attitudes.