Valerie Farnsworth

Communities of practice as a social theory of learning: A conversation with Etienne Wenger

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding and use of the theory of communities of practice. In order to clarify terms, explore applications for education and reflect on various critiques of the theory in the literature, two educational researchers conducted a series of interviews with the theorist Etienne Wenger-Trayner. The interviews have been thematically organised around key concepts from the theory. By relating the concepts to their uses in research and to other social theories, Wenger-Trayner clarifies key ideas of the theory including what constitutes a ‘community of practice’. He explains how he conceptualises identity and participation in order to develop a social theory of learning in which power and boundaries are inherent. The interviewers draw on these conceptual discussions with Wenger-Trayner to consider how the theory of communities of practice resonates with key debates and issues in education. By unpacking some key concepts of the theory from an educational perspective, we provide researchers with conceptual tools to support the complex decision-making that is involved in selecting the best and most appropriate theory or theories to use in their research.

Teachers who teach their practice: the modulation of hybridised professional teacher identities in work-related educational programmes in Canada

This article explores diversity in the identity of vocational teachers and the ways these identities are both situated in cultural and political contexts and built upon life and career histories. The analysis is developed from a study of work-related programmes offered to students aged 15-18 in one school board in Canada, with a particular focus on five courses. Teacher identity emerged as a significant factor that supported the distinctly vocational-educational learner experience that was identified through the research. The case-study approach enabled us to examine features of the context in relation to teacher identity. In particular, we propose that vocational teacher identities were modulated in relation to accountabilities to different ‘communities of practice’, such as those of prior or concurrent industry affiliations. We identify features of the policy context that enabled this modulation of identity and the formation of a ‘community of practice’ among technology teachers. Rich qualitative data is re-presented in conceptual terms which may be useful in framing and guiding educational decisions that are attuned to developing authentic vocational and educational experiences for young people. This analysis of vocational teacher identities not only expands upon current perspectives on teacher identity, but also throws new light on theoretical and practical debates surrounding teacher agency and curriculum control within heavily mandated and monitored professional contexts such as schools.

What Makes a Course Vocational? School-Based Work-Related Programmes in Canada in Dialogue with a Community of Practice.

The paper discusses five work-related secondary school courses in Canada, providing an empirical account through which a new way of conceptualising vocational education is developed. Using a case study approach, we identify the mutually reinforcing dimensions of education – from policy to the course experience – that supported the enactment of an education–industry dialogue. We propose that, by constructing a metaphorical bridge between school and work, such a dialogue with a vocational community of practice is what made these courses ‘vocational’. The concept of dialogism allows us to characterise vocational education in a way that accounts for the flexible and dynamic qualities of the enacted curricula which were observed and interpreted across the case studies. In this conceptualisation, the teacher with prior industry experience embodies the dialogue and constructs a dialogic curriculum. The analysis builds on existing research which highlights the importance of teacher identity and background by situating the mediational role of teacher identity within a multi-dimensional framework. The different dimensions of a course, such as pedagogy and assessment are not lost in this conceptualisation, but rather become the loci for the dialogue. The potential implications of this conceptualisation for vocational education are discussed in the conclusion.

Students' Production of Curricular Knowledge: Perspectives on Empowerment in Financial Capability Education.

The aim of this article is to extend our understanding of the relationship between knowledge of personal finance and empowerment. The analysis is based on interview data obtained as part of a longitudinal study of students, aged 16–19, who completed a financial capability course in the UK. The analysis presents a set of cultural models or storylines implied in student discourse about what it means to be financially capable. Possibilities for empowerment are interpreted from these cultural models with implications for how we define the boundaries of financial capability education. References to empowerment in terms of having a voice and feeling confident to make consumer decisions and to advise others in matters of finance were common across the interview data. However, a form of knowledge and empowerment that positioned students not as aware consumers but as individuals with a critical awareness of financial and economic systems was less evident.

Following the Trail from Political Discourse to Curriculum Reform: Reflecting on the Shape of Financial Capability Education in England

This chapter traces the history and political interests that fostered the espousal of a place for financial capability in the school curriculum in England. Through an analysis of policy discourse, I explore some explanations for the presence and shape of financial capability education. Policy discourse extracts were compiled for analysis from a search for the terms ‘financial literacy’, ‘financial capability’ or ‘financial education’ in Hansard, the Official Report of the proceedings of the British Parliament. The analysis covers the time period (2004–2005) just before the first stand-alone financial capability qualification for young people (16+) was introduced in England. The analysis examines each of the four reform debates (trust fund, education, credit card and pensions reforms) in which financial capability was mentioned and reflects on how the situated meanings and cultural models expressed in the discourse were used to build a case for financial capability education in England.

Talking truth, confronting power

How power, truth and the politics of evidence regulate the research topics, epistemologies, methodologies and pedagogies permitted in contemporary educational research is the focus of Talking truth, confronting power. This is the sixth volume from a series of books based around the Discourse, Power, Resistance conferences. The international contributors share a commitment to upending the dominant politics of truth and a belief in the value of speaking up to power. ‘Whose truth?’ ‘Whose power?’ are the questions asked as the authors traverse topics of race, rhetoric, ethics, research practices, teaching and learning. Norman Denzin’s first chapter sets the scene and tone of the book, unsettling the prevailing politics of truth and the culture of scientific evidence, and he establishes a different set of certainties around which a ‘new fable’ (12) could be built. These new certainties include the need to leave science and knowledge open to perpetual contestation, to acknowledge the political impetus of research practices and to recognize that ‘objectivity and evidence are moral and political terms’ (12). Frank Furedi’s chapter unpicks an identifiable rhetoric of vulnerability, describing how this rhetoric has been adopted and nurtured by various groups of different political persuasions. In the heated debates over the poll tax in Britain, for example, Furedi notes that the championing of ‘vulnerable groups’ was claimed by both the British Government and the opposition. For Furedi, an incontestable discourse focused on protecting ‘the vulnerable’ (variously deployed) now prevails that suppresses debate and public engagement with underlying social, economic and political issues. Pat Sikes and Heather Piper discuss the regulatory and constraining role of ethics review panels, describing the problems that arose in the process of seeking approval for conducting research with teachers falsely accused of sexual abuse. Their discussion of two unsuccessful attempts to get their research proposal approved by their institutional ethics committee is accompanied by a more general critique of current procedures for the ethical review of social scientific research. This illuminating critical account incorporates the issues of academic freedom, the role of university litigation worries, the fantasies that the bureaucratision of ethics lures in, and the myth of ‘informed consent’. They consequently ask: what kinds of truths are permitted (and excluded) by such measures of research manipulation and surveillance? Susan Heald writes of her involvement in an international development project in Central America, which became so unbearably imperialist, that she ultimately resigned. This story makes grim reading, but Heald’s chapter is so wonderfully astute and informative, so clear and passionate in its critique of development work, that it left us more inspired than dejected. Three key points can be taken from Heald’s account. First,