‘real’ setting, a community of practice, enables learning to be contextualised. Crossley
and Watson (2003) argue that this learning needs multiple levels: local, regional,
national and global. It is possible through practice within the community and classroom
reflection for students to be able to see this bigger picture. Utilising a lens on
communities of practice and CP there is a synergy available where pedagogy and
learning can be shared both within formal learning settings and outside – with
community members. In this paper, I have set out the precepts of communities of practice
and CP mapping similarities across the areas. The synergy of these approaches
was illustrated through a case study, outlining ways in which communities of practice
ideas are taken up in an undergraduate CP module. Bourner (2009) contrasts the
knowledge, skills and attitudes of a traditional university education (majority) model
with a student learning in the community model. The traditional and dominant model
seeks to produce graduates with an up-to-date knowledge of a subject with a questioning
mind, good writing skills, etc. A student who is learning in the community has
learnt how and where to locate knowledge from wide sources, how to use knowledge
from one’s own experience thus acquiring self and subject-specific knowledge. These
skills are transferable and, ‘this graduate recognises the value of action when
they want to make a difference to a cause to which they feel commitment’ (Bourner
2009, 7).
This versatility argument on a graduate level also impacts upon the world outside
the university. On a macro level, there is a growing recognition of the value of
university community engagement (Kagan and Duggan 2009; Watson 2007) and an
evidence base is beginning to accrue. To make universities more accountable to the
communities in which they are situated in, we need to have a dialogue and a space in
which the relationship and obligations are discussed. The discourse of widening
participation and the rhetoric of lifelong learning are shorthand ways of placing learning
on the governmental agenda. However, access to knowledge, resources for learning
and alienation are implicit issue which need unpacking. To legitimise peripheral
participation (i.e. learning), there is a need to shape how communities of practice are
formed. Returning to a definition of community of practice, ‘as a group of people who
share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better
through regular interaction’, we can see core elements of sharing, regular interaction
and change. Embedding the learning pedagogy of CP with ideas from communitie