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

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"sustained pursuit ofa shared enterprise" (ibid.:45). These kinds of communities are
called communities ofpractice.
\ Working with others who share the same conditions is a central factor in defining the
enterprise one engages with. A community ofpractice:
1. Provides resolutions to institutionally generated conflicts
2. Supports a communal memory that allows individuals to do their work
without needing to know everything
3. Helps newcomers join the community by participating in its practice
4. Generates specific perspectives and terms to enable accomplishing what needs
to be done
5. Makes the job habitable by creating an atmosphere in which the monotonous
and meaningless aspects ofthe job are woven into the rituals, customs, stories,
events, dramas and rhythms ofcommunity life (Wenger 1998:46).
Individuals"... act as resources to each other, exchanging information, making sense of
situations, sharing new tricks and new ideas, ..." (ibid.:47). A practice is what people (in
this research study, teachers in TEMS) have developed in order to be able to do their jobs
and have a satisfying experience at work. The concept practice entails doing in a
historical and social context that gives structure and meaning to what is done. Practice is
essentially a social practice. It includes both the explicit and the tacit and
... encompasses the language, tools, documents, images, symbols, well-defined roles,
specified criteria, codified procedures, regulations and contracts that various practices
make explicit for a variety ofpurposes (Wenger 1998:47).
Implicit relations and tacit conventions are important signs ofcommunities ofpractice.
The tacit, taken for granted or common sense can be worked out through mutual
engagement in communities ofpractice.
The concept practice and the process of engaging in practice always "involves the whole
person, both knowing and acting at once" (ibid.:48). Communities ofpractice include the
theoretical, and the practical, one's ideals and the reality, and both talking, doing and
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