Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

3.3.3.3 Practice
In extending on his original concept of a 'shared repertoire' (Wenger 1998), the concept
'practice' is presented as the third component of a community ofpractice. Practice is
described as a "set offrameworks, ideas, tools, information, styles, language, stories, and
documents that community members share" (Wenger et a12002:29). While the domain
describes the topic the community concentrates on, practice refers to the specific
knowledge that the community develops, shares and maintains.
Practice refers to
...socially defined ways of doing things in a specific domain: a set ofcommon
approaches and shared standards that create a basis for action, communication, problem
solving, performance and accountability. These communal resources include a variety of
knowledge types: cases and stories, theories, rules, frameworks, models,...(and) best
practice ... (Wenger et al 2002:39)
When the three elements (domain, community and practice) function well together, it
makes for a healthy community. It is important that all three elements develop in parallel
and that none are neglected as this could prove to be counterproductive (Wenger et al
2002).
As a conclusion to this section, I explicate the aspects ofWenger's work that had
influenced the TEMS project. I firstly focus on aspects that informed the teacher
development project. Secondly, I highlight aspects that informed the data collection and
data analysis.
The TEMS teacher development project was conceived on the assumption that teachers'
participation in the community ofpractice would enhance teacher learning. This is a
central feature ofWenger's work as it enabled the reconceptualising ofteacher learning
in terms of creating diverse opportunities for participation and hence diverse
opportunities for learning. Wenger's notions of different levels ofmembership provided a
framework for enabling participation by members who made up the core and members
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