Taking a communities of practice approach involves an understanding of the
particular relationships between learning, identity and participation. More precisely,
knowing becomes situated in social resources; learning is situated in forms of social
co-participation; identity and learning hinge on activity and participation in communities
of practice and asymmetric forms of social participation (i.e. unequal relationships)
can foster learning and engagement. A dominant feature of this approach to
learning sees knowledge transmission and sharing being encompassed within practices.
Practices in this account refer not only to human features within the setting – e.g.
interpersonal relationships but also the artefacts within the setting – buildings, texts,
etc. The way in which learning then occurs in communities of practice is through legitimate
peripheral participation to settings where practices occur. This sees learning not
solely as access to instruction but also as access to the practice setting, seeing these
practices themselves as the resources for learning. In this account, legitimate peripheral
participation is an interactive process in which the learner (apprentice) can have
different roles at the same time – status subordinate, learning practitioner, sole agent
in minor parts of the task, aspiring expert, etc. Here, the learning is not simply just
located in practice – it is an integral part of ‘generative social practice in the lived in
world’ (Pea and Sealy Brown 1991). The concept of legitimate peripheral participation
provides a; ‘way to speak about the relations between newcomers and old-timers, and
about activities, identities, artefacts and communities of knowledge and practice’
(Lave and Wenger 1991, 29).