Abstract
Go anywhere in education and chances are one will hear the term “community of practice” (CoP). The concept, coined by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, was built from the foundation of social learning theory and has had significant endurance as a way to leverage adult learning landscapes. Wenger has continued to research CoPs as they have grown in popularity across all major sectors (educational, organizational, business, politics, etc.) to shape new findings that help researchers, practitioners, and scholars. This excerpt chronicles Wenger’s early influences through his key contributions and new insights, examining how the utilization of his research has helped shape adult learning, professional growth, and collaborative progress.
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Further Readings
Contu, A. (2014). On boundaries and difference: Communities of practice and power relations in creative work. Management Learning, 45(3), 289–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507612471926
Farnsworth, V., Kleanthous, I., & Wenger-Trayner, E. (2016). Communities of practice as a social theory of learning: A conversation with Etienne Wenger. British Journal of Educational Studies, 64(2), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2015.1133799
Goglio-Primard, K., Simon, L., Cohendet, P., Aharonson, B. S., & Wenger-Trayner, E. (2020). Managing with communities for innovation, agility, and resilience. European Management Journal, 38(5), 673.
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Wenger-Trayner, E., Fenton-O’Creevy, M., Hutchinson, S., Kubiak, C., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (Eds.). (2014). Learning in landscapes of practice: Boundaries, identity, and knowledgeability in practice-based learning. Routledge.
Yi, P. (2022). Teachers’ communities of practice in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Will innovation in teaching practices persist and prosper? Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 11(5), 241 https://doi.org/10.5430/jct.v11n5p241
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Erickson, M., Hosmer, S.K., Scanlan, M. (2023). Etienne Wenger: A Social Learning Theorist. In: Geier, B.A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_215-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_215-1
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