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- Vol 6 RE: Chapters 1, 2, 10, App A, App B, App D, App E
communities of practicesocial participationpractice-based learningparticipation and reificationidentity developmentnegotiated meaningboundary crossinglegitimate participationBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Wenger develops a social theory in which learning is participation in practice rather than only the acquisition of information by individuals. Communities of practice emerge as people pursue shared enterprises, negotiate how to act, and build repertoires of language, routines, artefacts, stories, and concepts.
Key ideas
Meaning arises through a dual process of participation and reification: people engage with one another while also producing forms that stabilise experience. Learning changes both practice and identity, as participants follow trajectories, encounter regimes of competence, and negotiate membership across boundaries. The theory therefore connects community, practice, meaning, and identity without treating communities as automatically harmonious or formally designed teams. Power, marginality, non-participation, and tensions between local practice and wider institutions remain consequential. The book is a conceptual synthesis grounded partly in ethnographic material, not an experimental comparison of instructional methods.
Why it matters
For education and professional learning, it suggests examining what learners are becoming able to do and who they are becoming through participation. Productive design can support mutual engagement, meaningful joint work, access to practice, boundary connections, and opportunities for newcomers to develop recognised competence.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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