Examining Science Classrooms Through A Sociocultural Theory Of Learning: Does The Community Of Practice Framework Work?

This paper examines how Wenger's (1998) community of practice framework is both applicable and useful for examining learning as a social process in two science classrooms. Visiting two science classrooms over the course of one school year, I used observations, focus group interviews, and individual interviews to examine how Wenger's main dimensions, joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and shared repertoires, were manifested in both classrooms. I also used the same qualitative methods to examine how the dimensions helped to explain learning as participation, membership and identity formation within the classrooms. Findings illustrated that examining Wenger's dimensions from both emic and etic perspectives was consequential to identifying a community of practice and thus understanding learning as a social process.