Joining a Community of Practice Creates Serious Difficulties and Challenges for Newcomers

          We know that interaction in a community of practice plays an integral role in developing our relations with others. As a member of such a community, an individual may have many other reasons for membership including "making money, doing well, feeling good, not being naive, being personable, dealing with boredom" (p. 78). Futhermore, joining a community of practice involves "entering not only its internal configuration but also its relations with the rest of the world" (p. 103). In addition, Wenger (p. 126) confirms that in a community it is not necessary to have interaction with all participants and know everyone very well, but it is fine to have a good relationship with some of them, and be able to spend time in negotiation a problem which is important to you. Moreover, Wenger (p. 125) demonstrates that a community of practice carries a lot of positive meaning for participants including sustained mutual relationships, shared ways of engaging in doing things together, very quick setup of a problem to be discussed, local lore, shared stories, inside jokes, knowing laughter, mutually defining identities, a shared discourse reflecting a certain perspective on the world and so forth.

      Wenger’s book "Community of Practice Learning, Meaning, and Identity (1998), highlights some challenges that newcomers encounter through joining a community of practice. Wenger states (p. 84) that the real problem of communication and design is to "situate ambiguity in the context of a history of mutual engagement that is rich enough to yield an opportunity for negotiation". In addition, there is a lack of support in the community of practice and this lack informs difficulties facing newcomers in their new community. One of these difficulties that Wenger had confirmed is the rejection of the new participants by the rest of the community. As a result, the rejected member of a community may experience difficulty in participating and learning about that particular community and thus receiving the necessary support. In terms of communication, it is not easy for newcomers to participate in a community of practice without having the support from their community. Changing oneself is not an easy process and change to fit into that community. For instance, although it may be easier for the newcomer to learn certain spelling words, it may not be as easy to understand and use the new language (p. 89). In order to have control over one’s practice in a community, the individual needs to understand the politics involved. However, having gaps in the language and being distanced from one’s ethnic group might make it difficult to understand local practices. In addition, the newcomers many also experience stress resulting from his or her inability to fully control the future. Wenger (p. 93) said that "control must constantly be reproduced, reasserted, renegotiated in practice".

Since the world is always changing , every practice must be reinvented. New community participants, like Wenger’s claims processors for example, struggle in their jobs as they try to create an atmosphere that they can live with (Wenger, p. 94). In a new community, participants always renegotiate their relationships and ways of participating. As a result, they may have to face losing friendships , conflicts, rumors and so forth. In some cases a community can fall apart because of internal tensions but in most cases new participants are "absorbed into the community as they start contributing to its practice" (Wenger, p. 94).

            From my point of view, one of the most significant difficulties that newcomers face is racism between white and black people as we have seen in the movie "Crash". Another significant difficulty that a newcomer may face occurs when her or his religion practices are challenged. These challenges contribute to creating large barriers between nations and cultures. The resulting obstacles prevent the building of mutual engagement and common interests. The media and the government often wrongfully connect Islam with radicalism especially after September 11th. In reality, Islam is based on peace, cooperation, mercy and justice. Radicalism is a conflict which destroys the entire society. In addition, in Islam, there is no difference between black and white people, or who speaks Arabic or not. There have been many instances of racism against Muslims after September 11th. One of these occurred a few years ago when a young ambitious man from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a great dream to continue his education in the United States. By moving to a new country or community the man lost contact with his previous connections. Losing one’s connection or friendship in a community of practice can create many challenges for the newcomer (Wenger, p. 125). In this journey towards getting an education, he faced a lot of difficulties, challenges and harassment. However, the man decided to continue pursuing his dream and he did not give up for the sake of his parents. He could not get a visa to visit his family for 6 years. We cannot imagine how difficult this situation was for him. In addition, another challenge was the difficulty of the delivery of a bank transfer to his bank account which resulted in him having to work in different places like restaurants and libraries to find sources of money to help him continue his studies. It took a long time for him to make enough money to complete his education because of the September 11th disaster. After he had finished studying the English language, the man got started accepted to an American university for obtaining a Master's degree. A few years later, he finished his Master degree and PhD. All of these difficulties enabled this man to become a more confident person by learning about the other cultures, immersing himself in the community, working in different places and facing racism with strong belief and desire to achieve all of his goals.

      To conclude, joining a community of practice is full of benefits for the newcomers who immerses him or herself and participates in the community. It is often not easy to participate and communicate with others especially when an individual first joins a particular community such individuals may face some difficulties and challenges like losing the support , power, control, and facing boundaries in their community. As member of particular communities, newcomers should have the same rights as the individuals who have been part of those communities for some time.

                 " Granting the newcomers legitimacy is important because

                    they are likely to come short of what the community

                    regards as competent engagement. Only with enough

                  legitimacy can all their inevitable stumbling and

                  violations become opportunities for learning rather than

                   cause for dismissal, neglect, or exclusion" (Wenger, p. 101).

Blog#3

What are the benefits of participating in a community of practice?

        In my paper, I will discuss the benefits of an individual’s participation in a community of practice. We as human beings take part in different types of communities. Our main motivation for participating in these communities is that we are searching for a good, comfortable, and convenient way of life. Reid (2000, p. 3) indicates in his study that participation is “a condition for success” and that we achieve personal development through our interaction  in the community.   We  seek contact with others because we hope to find success and improve our skills in different fields by participating in various communities. According to Wenger (2008) in his book “Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity”, participation  is  “a complex process that combines doing, talking, thinking, and belonging. It involves our whole person, including our bodies, minds, emotions, and social relations” (p. 56). Participation plays an integral part in our lives as learners,  teachers, parents and so forth. Most people have different intentions and needs when looking for progress in their lives. I , as a student, would like to concentrate on the benefits of entering a community of learners and participating in this area. 

              Here one must ask if participation can assist in shaping our experience. According to Wenger, “participation in social communities shapes our experience” (Wenger, p. 56). Participation yields us an opportunity to improve our experience and build strong connections with different people in different places. Participation can affect the participants in different ways. Individuals experience life in many different ways. Specifically, participants in a given community learn from each other, improve their skills, knowledge, thoughts, achieve personal goals, contribute to solving problems and learn about different cultures. According to Davidson, our participation in a community enables us to learn  from others how to deal with difficult situations and how to “discover both the needs and challenges facing us”. For instance, since I have started my studies at this university, I have learned a lot from my professors and my classmates. I learned how to make a blog and I learned how to tie a knot. We will remember those people who taught us something by sharing their time with us. This point is confirmed by Wenger when he states that participants will remember “the people” who have made valid contributions to a community and its participants.   

          A community of practice should include mutual engagement, respect and negotiation between the participants because they come from different families and have different experience, ideas, and beliefs. Reid (2000, p. 4) confirms this point by saying that there should be respect for the other participant’s idea in any community because there is no bad idea. They also “work together, see each other every day and exchange information and opinions’’(p. 75). Moreover, the relations between participants have different mixtures of

“Power and dependence, pleasure and pain, expertise and helplessness, success and failure, alliance and competition, ease and struggle, authority and collegiality, resistance and compliance, anger and tenderness, attraction and repugnance, fun and boredom, trust and suspicion , friendship and hatred” (Wenger, p. 77).

        A community of practice will be a source where both negative and positive experiences and feelings will be generated. Wenger confirms that “a community of practice is neither a haven of togetherness nor an island of intimacy insulated from political and social relations...Peace, happiness, and harmony are therefore not necessary properties of  a community of practice . Certainly, there are plenty of disagreements , tensions, and conflicts among claims processors (p. 77).  From my own experience, participating in a community of practice was formed after being a teacher for one year in my country “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”. Teaching in my country has provided me with an interesting and unforgettable experience through interactions with different teachers and students. There were many positive outcomes for me due to participating in that particular community. For example, I learned how to be patient as a result of dealing with both the aggressive and the less interested students. In this situation, I gained the experience of working with the manager, teachers and my students. I also learned to control myself during the intense discussions that took place.   

        Participation in a community is not something that we can turn on or off (p. 57). It is a part of who we are. In  the workplace, participation plays an important role in shaping our experience and developing our relationships with other workers which might continue even after our retirement or termination of a job. My relationships with other teachers who taught with me in  the same school still continue until today. I try to call them and ask them for advice even when I am here in Canada. I am eager to go back to my country to see them again.

         To conclude, community participation is a complicated concept. Community participation also plays an enormous role in our lives.  Through our participation in a variety of communities, we share ideas, increase our knowledge about other people’s experiences, develop our skills, and discover our talents. According to Davidson, our participation in a community of practice has many benefits for us. We learn  from others how to deal with difficult situations, face our needs and challenges, and understand our weaknesses. Our participation in any community is recorded in our memory and that of others. Although we may move to different places or leave our jobs, we leave behind impressions on those that we interact with.

               

Reference list:

Reid, J. N. (2000).  How People Power Brings Sustainable Benefits to Communities. Community participation.

Wenger, E. (2008). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity.
Cambridge University Press: New York, New York

http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/calarks/arks/Materials/particip/What_is_Participation.pdf

(http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x22651.xml