Situating Learning in Communities of Practice

What would happen if a different eye, culturally and historically sensitized by an excursion through forms of apprenticeship i n different parts of the world, e-rrc turned on specific contemporary cultural and historical features of learning pr,:, .;-<: . . L ~ : .. as these are situated i n communities of practice in tht United States? I < . l i h t ~ rh:jn turning to school-like activities for confirmation and guidance about tile llalur;. of learning, that gaze ~ ~ o u l d reverse the perspective from which ~:~:l-~r~l:rsl.~gists look outward from their culture onto another. 11 would draw c 8 r 1 {r-h::r i s known about learning i n forms of apprenticeship in other cultures 1 8 . 1 ir3l::ilj?r learning in our own sociocultural, historically grounded world. Ldn:h ;I 7 lew in\lites a rethinking of the norion of learning, treating it as an c!!ii.rF!rl~ property of whole persons' legitimate peripheral participation in com! ~ ~ ~ n i ~ i c s of practice. Such a view sees mind, culture, history, and the social r 4 , : : l d .:F interrelated processes that constitute each other, and intentionally