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).
Very informative Nourah, I was pleased to have read this blog and see how you brought out the daily struggles of newcomers and the effect of communities of practice on those struggles. I can only relate too well to the whole newcomer situation, and it was not an easy walk in the park and today it still is not. Persistance and integrity allows for such perservarance in overcoming such issues. We can only learn and hope for the best, however by becoming a part of this community I have learned that each individual carries a story and we all have different journeys in life. However, I have learnt to embrace the diveristy of learning and its positive impact on my life that allow me to become a much better individual. Thanks for such a beautiful insight. I am happy to be a part of your Commmunity of pracitces :)
ReplyDeleteHi Nourah,
ReplyDeleteAs Isha said, thanks for bringing your experience as a newcomer and those of others to this discussion. While I'm Canadian-born, I have lived in a number of other countries, where I have experienced isolation, disorientation, and culture shock, as well as my greatest life's learning from being able to view myself as the other.
As you state, the experiences of being a newcomer are both exhilirating and overwhelming, and communities of practice may not always recognize these complexities. Some of the responsibility rests on newcomers to ask questions, clarify misunderstandings, and share their distinct perspectives. But, a huge part of the responsibility of making communities of practice inclusive also rests on the old-timers, to hold back assumptions, and first to ask questions for clarity.
I wonder about your experiences as an international student at MSVU, and I'm sure you could point to many communities of practice that felt exclusionary. I hope you've also found spaces of respect and inclusion.
Hi Nourah,
ReplyDeleteI definitely appreciate that you put light on this topic because I too have friends that struggled in North American life as newcomers. Two close friends of mine came to Dalhousie as international students and both decided to stay in Canada to pursue a life of better opportunities.
Their decisions to remain in Canada weren’t easy. During university, their problems ranged had from adjusting to the foods, extreme weather conditions, the English language, and our society’s system of policies and procedures.
So why did they choose to stay here in spite of those barriers? I found their personal stories that they shared with me to be eye-opening. Even though they were from different countries, their personal experiences were similar. After four years of Canadian university life, there were two unintended complications with going back home that they had to consider. First, as females from very traditional cultures where a women’s role is still submissive, their experiences of becoming independent was liberating. Returning home meant going back to their parents and living under their rules such as who to keep as friends, what time to be home, and who to marry. That would be hard to go back to – especially arranged marriages. Second, they had actually assimilated enough into Canadian culture (i.e. language, dress, mannerisms, etc.) that even members from their culture would treat them as outsiders.
Ultimately, both of my friends shared identical stories of living with a confused cultural-identity crisis. They were neither Canadian nor were they a member of their original community anymore. They feel like a stranger to everyone they cross paths with now. Fortunately, they are both living successful lives and they both have family members in Canada.
I know that I can’t change the world for every new person that I meet but I think the one role I can play in the experiences of some newcomers is to apply positive peer-pressure in the simple form of friendly interaction to help newcomers practise talking in English.
As-Salamu Alaykum,
Allister