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

3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning
and Identity
Wenger (1998) continued in the same vein as in his previous work with Lave, locating his
view oflearning from a situative perspective by focusing on learning as participation in
the social world instead offocussing on the individual as learner.
He argues that we should adopt a perspective that places learning in the context ofour
lived experience ofparticipation in the world. Learning is as much a part ofhuman nature
as eating or sleeping - it is both life-sustaining and inevitable and people are "quite good
at it" (ibid.:3). Learning is a 'fundamentally social phenomenon'. Wenger asserts that his
work is a 'social theory oflearning' with its own set ofassumptions and focus. It
'constitutes a coherent level ofanalysis' and 'yields a conceptual framework' that allows
the derivation ofa set of 'general principles and recommendations' for understanding
learning. His four main assumptions about learning are that:
1. People are social beings (this principle constitutes the central aspect oflearning).
2. Knowledge entails competence with respect to valued enterprises.
3. Knowing involves participating in the pursuit of such enterprises.
4. Meaning is the eventual product oflearning and refers to our ability to experience
the world and our engagement with it as meaningful (ibid.).
\ The focus of the theory is on 'learning as participation', that is, oflearners being active
participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation
to these communities.
Meaning, practice, identity and community are the four elements that comprise Wenger's
social theory oflearning. These elements are 'deeply interconnected and mutually
defining' (ibid.:5). Even ifone were to displace any ofthe four peripheral components
with learning and position the displaced component in the centre, the model will still
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