"Go for Broke and Speak Your Mind!" Building a Community of Practice with Bilingual Pre-Service Teachers

The concept of communities of practice (CoP) developed by Lave and Wenger (1991) has been widely utilized as a conceptual framework for social theories of learning. Rather than conceiving learning as a cognitive and/or behavioral process, the CoP framework proposes a paradigm shift in learning, one in which social participation is the primary condition. The underlying assumption of communities of practice lies in a reconceptualization of learning beyond the individual (Barton & Tusting, 2005). Although Lave and Wenger developed the CoP model to explain socially situated learning of apprentices in informal settings (e.g., midwives, butchers, and tailors), it has been widely adopted by researchers who focus on formal educational contexts (e.g., Brown, 2007; Cho, 2013; Hodges & Cady, 2013; Lee & Clare, 2013; Morton, 2012; Sim, 2006). In particular, research has demonstrated that the creation of communities of practice enhances collaboration, thereby providing academic and social support for student learning in teacher preparation programs (Au, 2002; Cuddapah & Clayton, 2011; Dinsmore & Wenger, 2006; Levine, 2011; Yang, 2009; Zeichner & Gore, 1990). In this research project, I aim to provide insight into the qualities of a supportive community of practice in a teacher preparation program that was purposefully designed to create a learning community for bilingual pre-service teachers. I will delineate the characteristics of the communities of practice in the program that resulted in successful student learning, and also discuss the tensions and challenges among members that complicated their participation in the communities of practice. In light of these findings, I will offer some suggestions for utilizing the CoP model for diverse teacher candidates in teacher education programs. Conceptual Framework Communities of Practice Defined A community of practice (CoP) is broadly defined as "a group of people who share an interest in a domain of human endeavor and engage in a process of collective learning that creates bonds between them" (Wenger, 1998, p. 1). CoP defines community not in terms of pre-determined social categories, such as gender, language, race, ethnicity, nationality, or class, but through social interaction and shared goals. Wenger (1998) identified three sources of community coherence: mutual engagement, a joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. Mutual engagement concerns negotiated objects of attention and regular interaction with a community of people. This is the basis for the relationships that make the community of practice possible. A joint enterprise refers to a common endeavor in a process in which to accomplish negotiated goals through interaction within a community. Shared repertoire involves a set of routines, words, instruments, or genre by means of which participants express their identity within the community in the course of its existence. Communities of practice have multiple levels and types of participation, in that at any one time members may be central participants in one community, but peripheral participants in another. Even within one community of practice, members can move back and forth between the core and the periphery depending on the social context in which they are situated. It is also worth noting that the idea of community here does not necessarily refer to a sense of harmony, but rather to shared social practices and goals that become differentiated among subgroups (Fuller, 2007). The members moving back and forth from the core, members joining and leaving, and members determining their legitimacy in the communities of practice can all lead to tensions and disharmony. Wenger (1998) further expanded the construct of communities of practice by considering learning as an experience of identity, which entails both a process and a place. As a consequence, to support learning is not only to facilitate the process of acquiring knowledge and skill, but also to provide a place in which new ways of knowing can be realized in the form of an identity. …