But because so much of the workwas performed collaboratively with adults, youth had fewer opportunities to prac-tice and master skills on their own, which makes it challenging to draw inferencesabout their learning. This does not, however, mean that they did not learn. Rogoffet al.’s (2003) description of “intent participation,” for example, suggests that theprocess of attentively observing an activity is a central part of the learning process.Opportunities to observe, listen to conversations, and engage in shared endeavorswith adults may be meaningful even if they do not lead to independent perfor-mance.

Practicingfor student club meetings(Youth Rising)

Differences between facilitation, apprenticeship, and joint work.

nitially I set out to identify the strategies that adults used to turn responsibilityfor the group over to youth so that it would become youth-led. It quickly becameapparent, however, that Youth Rising and TRUE did not share this goal withYELL. Therefore, instead of approaching my study as a technical question abouthow adults support youth-led activities, I sought to document the variety of ap-proaches to working with youth that I observed and how these related to broadergroup goals and contexts.

Unlike in YELL or Youth Rising, in TRUE adultsand youth treated me as a regular participant in the conference planning process—Iwas expected to offer opinions, vote on decisions, and implement necessary tasks

Observers often de-scribe this process as a form ofscaffolding, which implies temporary assistancethat will be withdrawn gradually as the learner assumes greater mastery (in con-trast todistributed intelligence, in which collaboration among actors and tools isan ongoing feature of an activity; Pea, 2003

Instead,adults shared political views with youth, pitched in to complete campaign tasks atkey points, and participated in most decisions. I describe this form of guidance asapprenticeship: Adults were veteran activists who participated in the same en-deavor as novices, while nevertheless structuring activities in ways that were sensi-tive to youths’ skill levels.

They are initially given supporting tasks and work close enough to observe themore advanced participants; they move to more complex aspects of the activityas they learn (Metge 1984).

This approach to learning has beenquestioned by sociocultural scholars. Several have proposed instead the idea thatlearning is a process of transformation of participation in ongoing cultural activities

If children are integrated in a wide range of community settings, they areable to observe and listen in on the ongoing activities of their community aslegiti-mate peripheral participants(Lave & Wenger 1991).

instruction builds on the children's interests.

digital systems and displays oftenundermine mutual availability and visibility. Removing the visibility ofthe scene of action from the view of others not only undermines co-participation and collaboration at the exhibit itself, but removes thepossibility of others seeing and making relevant sense of what people aredoing elsewhere within the scene. The relevant ecology of action is largelydenied to those who happen to be within the same space. In contrast, it isworth adding that even those who design for fairgrounds and similar venueshave long recognized the importance of making their displays visible to a‘gathering’, allowing others to participate in various ways in the scene ofaction

The transition point, from periphery into the principal stripof activity, hinges not on the spatial distribution of the participants, or evensimply on the character of the conduct, but rather through the ways thatactions are treated as sequentially responsive and prospectively relevant

itraises important questions concerning the circumstances or occasions onwhich objects and artefacts are viewed and of the competencies that peoplebring to bear in their recognition and interpretation.

Indeed, whatpeople choose to look at in a museum or gallery, how long they spend withan exhibit, and how they look at and experience particular objects andartefacts may well arise in and through interaction with others – not justthose they may be with but others who happen to be within ‘perceptual rangeof the event’ (cf. Goffman, 1981)

The conduct of others within the same space can feature in how peopleorient, what people choose to look at and how they experience particularobjects, artefacts and events

The discovery of the functionalities of the piece are largely discoveredin and through interaction with others, both people accompanying otherpeople and others who happen to be in the same space.

designed to display and encourage a way of seeing, of making sense, ofexperience by other

Exhibits themselves are thought of as having ‘stoppingpower’ and the interest and pleasure that people gain arises through theirindividual engagement with the art work.

important issues for ourunderstanding of visual communication. It directs our attention towards theidea of an ‘active spectator’ who constitutes the sense and significance ofobjects and artefacts

The conduct of others within the same space can feature in how peopleorient, what people choose to look at and how they experience particularobjects, artefacts and events.

Educationally sig-nificant interactions do not involve abstract bearers of cognitivestructures, but real people who develop a variety of interpersonal re-lationships with one another in the course of their shared activity in agiven institutional context."

dramatically

Our example highlights how, within such a distributedsystem, children can draw on the resources of teachers, materials,and, most important, one another to shape and direct their academicactivities.

She intention-ally allows Aaron to answer the other children's questions, buildson their knowledge with more information, and asks open-endedquestions to bring focus to the group and encourage individuals toparticipate

instruction builds on the children's interests. The contentis learned through the different social relations and activities that theteacher facilitates in consultation with the children.

teacher in these classrooms is that of a mediator, in the Vy-gotskian sense: to provide guidance, strategic support, and assistanceto help the children assume control of their own learning

The classroom functions through multiple, mediatedexchanges of knowledge, where the children, as well as the teacher,are active teachers and learners. It is this interdependence of adultsand children, and how they use social and cultural resources for de-veloping thinking, that make such classrooms informative case studiesof distributed cognition

"fluid reality" ofthe households, the changes in household composition, residence,jobs, and social relations; it is within this fluidity that the experiencesof families must be understood.

ndeed, help in finding jobs, housing, better deals on goods and ser-vices, and assistance in dealings with government agencies and otherinstitutions is of far greater significance to survival than are the ma-terial types of aid these households provide one another

I've changed my thoughts about war. I used to like to play war, butnow it makes me sick

In both settings weare interested not only in what Erickson (1982) called the "immedi-ate environments of learning," how specific learning contexts are so-cially constituted by adults and children, but in the broader socialsystem that helps define the nature of these environments and deter-mine what tools and resources are available for the participants' ac-tions

funds of knowledge

he design of products and environmentsto be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adapta-tion or specialized design.

Such design oftengoes unseen and unappreciated because, ironically, masterful design results in objects thatseem obvious and simple to use

The environment provides myriad personal choices, withoutany teachers forcing learners to do something unappealing, without curricular constraints

the exhibits should facilitate science learning, yet they also need to supporta diverse visiting public in making their own personal choices about where to attend,

Once inside, the admissions desk, bathrooms, and coffee cart are immediatelyapprehendable, allowing them to move effortlessly into the main exhibition space.

Personalization of the identity takes place as the initiate begins to identify with AA members. Through comparing his life to theirs, he sees that other members are like him and he is like them.

The individual's Higher Power may be God, the AA group, or any other conception of something larger than self.

In AA,pcrsorl:llsffuteo;··an'-tolcrfor the explicit, stated purpose of providing an understanding of alcoholism,

No distinct line runs between "so­cial" or "normal" drinker and "problem drinker" or "alcoholic," and different sectors of U.S. society do not agree on what these terms mean.

A successful writer who finds she writes better with a few drinks, a college student who only gets drunk on the weekends, a businessman who drinks to loosen up in social situations-these people may not consider themselves alcoholics, but those around them may consider them so.

Fundamental to Wenger's theory is the idea that identity is constructed at theintersection of the individual and the social world. By and large, both sociological andpsychological approaches have acknowledged that identity is simultaneously anindividual, social, and cultural phenomenon.

This finding highlights the critical role of the nature ofthe relationship with the teacher/coach for opportunities both to develop practice-linked identities and to become better at the practice.

From Coach J'sperspective, this was an indication of Gozi being both lazy and a goof-off, while forGozi, this was simply a mistake he had made under the misdirection of a more seniorteammate. Unlike Yaheem, Gozi did not choose to approach Coach J directly to repairthe relationship

three levels of analysisthat are required to offer an account of identity, including individuals, social interac-tion, and broader society.

Our analyses show that relational resources sometimes served as akind of gateway to material and ideational resources (and thus as a gateway tolearning).We als

. Our data seem to indicate that the personal relationshipbetween the coach and the athlete was central in determining athletes' access to theother material and ideational resources, as much of the teaching and learningoccurred in one-on-one interactions

Octavia displayed this same drive and independence, but at theend of practice she sat down on the grass for about 20 minutes to socialize with herteammates. At this point in the season, Octavia seemed to be participating in thepractice not for others but for herself, so that she might improve her performance.

In this interaction, several ideationalartifacts about Octavia and about hurdling were made salient Importantly, sheactively participated in this exchange, deconstructing her own performance.

In thisinteraction, and in others, the coach conveyed the importance of strong relationshipsbetween the students to creating an environment that supports optimal skill devel-opment and performance.

In thisinteraction, and in others, the coach conveyed the importance of strong relationshipsbetween the students to creating an environment that supports optimal skill devel-opment and performance.

In thisinteraction, and in others, the coach conveyed the importance of strong relationshipsbetween the students to creating an environment that supports optimal skill devel-opment and performance.

Reference group theory (Hyman 1942; Leach and Smith2006; Merton with Rossi 1957; Turner 1956) argues that one of the most powerfulinfluences on individuals' sense of self and behavior is the reference group that theybelong to (Suls and Wheeler 2000), which serves as a context for individuals to analyzeinformation and make decisions.

We believe this key transition that occurs in both schemes is best recast as identification-the formation of a concept of self as an actor in the system.

n the early stages oflearning, cultura artifacts, whether objects, words, or figures, serve as obvious mediators of people's activity. We count our fingers, glance at diagrams, and recite rules to ourselves. After practice (and forjh,_e_y<mng, a degree of maturation), however, are . worosoecome i.llnersp(;;;king, and figuresoecomeToiii)s obvious, external form, relying instead on inner means that we can re-produce at will.

nli.e less expert women tended to repeat the words and follow the direc-ons of others. They had less of an overview of romantic relationships; hey had to work harder to come up with responses to romantic situ-1 ations. Not surprisingly, those who were less identified with the world of romance, and for whom it was less salient, also were less expert in / JP.anaging relationships.

For the women we studied, the cultural interpretation of romance became salient and compelling as their expertise with romantic relation-ships increased and as they came to form an engaging interpretation of themselves in the world of romance

Those who ap-peared to be less knowledgeable or less expert closely copied and took direction from others, attended to relatively circumscribed aspects of relationships, and had difficulty generating possible responses to roman-tic situations.

The themes of male/female relationships also dominated a vocabulary that the students used to talk about one another.

Tlie figured wortaD£ romance acquired motivating force as ---the women developed mastery of it, and their mastery, in turn, depended upon their development of a concept of themselves as actors in the world of romance.

continual participation

the as-if character of possibility that marks fields (and figured worlds) is not an indifferent, "mental" abstrac-tion1 an "imaginary" in its usual sense, but a social rea"!!ty that lives within by relations of power.

There is, Goodenough con-no uniform, conslstf.nt, or coherent set of meanings-no "cul-ture"-that applies equally in every activity.

A figured world is formed and re-formed in relation to the everyday activities and events that or-dain happenings within it.

Fig-ured worlds provide the contexts of meaning and action in which social positions and social relationships are named and conducted. They also provide the loci in which people fashion senses of self-that is, develop

It is certainly not divorced from these happen-ings, but neither is it identical to the particulars of any one event. l!.1§Jm_ abstraction, an extractio

In contrast, to insist on starting with social practice, on taking participation to be the crucial process, and on including the social world at the core of the analysis only seems to eclipse the person. In reality, however, participation in social practice -subjective as well as objective -suggests a very explicit focus on the person, but as person-in-the-world, as member of a sociocultural community.

In a theory of practice, cognition and communication in, and with, the social world are situated in the historical development of on-going activity. It is, thus, a critical theory; the social scientist's practice must be analyzed in the same historical, situated terms as any other practice under investigation. One way to think of learning is as the historical production, transformation, and change of persons.

tries to help the drinker see herself as an alcoholic if she is ''ready.'' [Members] claim that telling their own sto-ries to other alcoholics, and thus helping other alco-holics to achieve sobriety, is an important part of maintaining their own sobriety. [At the same time] telling a personal story, especially at a speaker's meet-ing or on a Twelfth Step call, signals membership be-cause this "is the time that they [members] feel that they belong enough to 'carry the message'.''

A. A. is the reconstructign of identity, through the process of constructing personal life stories, and with them, the meaning of the teller's past and future action in the world.

Stories do not just describe a life in a learned genre, but are tools for reinterpreting the past, and understanding the self in terms of the A. A. iden-tity.

(In fact, the two quartermaster chiefs with whom I worked most closely said they pre-ferred to get their trainees as able-bodied seamen with-out any prior training in the rate. They said this saved them the trouble of having to break the trainees of bad habits acquired in school.

The physical layout of a work setting is an impor-tant dimension of learning, since apprentices get a great deal from observing others and being observed.

n some sense, they are "trained" but they have no experience. (In fact, the two quartermaster chiefs with whom I worked most closely said they pre-ferred to get their trainees as able-bodied seamen with-out any prior training in the rate. They said this saved them the trouble of having to break the trainees of bad habits acquired in school.

An important point about such sequestering when it is insti-tutionalized is that it encourages a folk epistemology of dicho-tomies, for instance, between "abstract" and "concrete" knowledge. These categories do not reside in the world as dis-tinct forms of knowledge, nor do they reflect some putative hierarchy of forms of knowledge among practitioners. Rather, they derive from the nature of the new practice generated by sequestration

There is anecdotal evidence (Butler personal communication; Hass n .d.) that where the circulation of knowledge among peers and near-peers is possible, it spreads exceedingly rapidly and effectively.