The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring

10Mentoring Within Communities of Practice

SueAnn I. Bottoms¹, Jerine Pegg², Anne Adams³, Hilary Smith Risser⁴, and Ke Wu⁵

¹ Oregon State University, USA

² University of Alberta, Canada

³ University of Idaho, USA

⁴ Montana Tech, USA

⁵ University of Montana, USA

The concept of communities of practice (CoP) and the social learning theory in which it is embedded (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) have been used in a range of research studies to understand mentoring relationships in the field of education. However, no one has yet undertaken a broad examination of the literature to determine how these concepts overlap and inform mentoring practices. Thus, we embarked on this endeavor with the following research question: How has the concept of communities of practice been used to inform our understanding of mentoring relationships and practices within the field of education? In this chapter, we begin by describing Lave and Wenger's social theory of learning, the concept of communities of practice, and relationships to mentoring. Then we explore the ways in which scholars have used a CoP perspective to examine mentoring relationships and design mentoring models. In the conclusion of the chapter, we summarize themes in the literature and discuss possible tensions that may exist in the application of communities of practice to mentoring research.

Communities of Practice

The concept of “communities of practice” was first introduced in Lave and Wenger's (1991) book, Situated learning: ...