ERIC Number: EJ1069243
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1449-5554
EISSN: N/A
Central Practitioners' Developing Legitimate Peripheral Participation in a Community of Practice for Changing Schools
Woo, David James
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, v31 n2 p164-176 2015
As new technologies continue to shape society, there has been a greater need for communities of practice to facilitate changing teaching and learning practices through technology in schools. Legitimate peripheral participation through these communities of practice has become an essential means to spread and support this technology integration movement, but understanding this participation in communities has been limited. This paper reports on a study of how central practitioners developed legitimate peripheral participation episodes in an inter-organisational, international community of practice. It describes the qualitative, case study approach to the study, and outlines the community of practice, its central practitioners and the legitimate peripheral participation episodes in which they participated. The paper presents and discusses essential central practitioner individual and organisational factors which enabled the continuity and change of legitimate peripheral participation episodes in the community. Individual factors to emerge from the study include central practitioners' desire for continuous professional development and individual agency. Organisational factors include an organisation's distinctive mission, its distinctive roles, and constant negotiation, including conflicts of interest, between organisations and their members. The paper concludes with considerations of the value and relevance of legitimate peripheral participation in an inter-organisational community of practice for changing practices.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Communities of Practice, Institutional Cooperation, Educational Change, Qualitative Research, Case Studies, Group Dynamics, Participation, Change Agents, Educational Practices, Observation, Semi Structured Interviews, Professional Development, Continuing Education, Institutional Mission, Conflict of Interest, Educational Technology
Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. Ascilite Secretariat, P.O. Box 44, Figtree, NSW, Australia. Tel: +61-8-9367-1133; e-mail: info@ascilite.org.au; Web site: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hong Kong
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A