Entry to multiple communities of practice as a legitimate peripheral

Earlier in this chapter, I suggested that the concept of legitimate peripheral participation can also be drawn upon to describe the construction of identity by the apprentice through a ‘nexus of multimembership’ (Wenger, 1998: 158) of communities of practice, and this interpretation is an essential theoretical concept for this thesis. In this section, I develop this concept to explain how apprenticeships provided a social arena in which this could take place.

Vickerstaff (2007: 341) describes an apprenticeship as providing ‘…a sheltered transition into adulthood’ and refers to post-war apprenticeships as an

‘…apprenticeship in masculinity’ (2007: 339). Goodwin (2007) in his critique of Lave and Wenger’s theory, argues that it merely lays the foundations for

extending their concepts of situated learning and communities of practice, and if further developed, would contribute to a better understanding of the transition from childhood to maturity. Lave and Wenger (1991: 32) refer to this broader social dimension to their theory with the suggestion that children are

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suggests that full participation in society as an adult requires joining a constellation of communities of practice.

In his interpretation of situated learning theory, which I support and use in this thesis, Goodwin (2007) maintains that by gradually acquiring the norms of adult behaviour, adolescents move from the edge of various adult communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation as novices or newcomers,

towards full participation in adult society. The newcomer cannot participate fully, neither in adult society nor in the occupational community of practice at work, until these norms have been assimilated during the learning process.

These are considered to be a difficult progressions because the attitudes and behaviours of the adults encountered in these new communities of practice, are considered to be different from those displayed by the adults previously met by the novice in the family or at school (Goodwin, 2007). Additionally, a young person may experience a disparity between the realities of adult roles and the work experience, and preconceived ideas of adult life, which Goodwin maintains can lead to a ‘reality shock’ (2007:98).

As discussed previously in this chapter, in contemporary Western society, adolescents are bound by both convention and legislation as they are often considered to be neither children nor adults, both in their own minds and in the view of society. Presently in England, the earliest age that an adolescent can leave school is 16, with the stipulation that they enter an officially recognised training programme or a job with training, or some form of work combined with part-time education until the age of 18. At 16, they cannot marry or enlist in the armed forces without parental permission; they cannot legally purchase alcohol, drive a car, get a mortgage, vote in local or parliamentary elections or even see

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a film rated as ‘18’ by the British Board of Film Classification (British Board of Film Classification, 2013). All these can be considered normal adult activities in contemporary society, but not for the adolescent as they are not yet full

participants in the adult world. Yet they are able to partially engage in the adult world through legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice at work, and as argued in this thesis, to participate in other adult communities of practice through it.

It is also suggested (Leszczynski & Strough, 2008) that an important area of identity formation, that is gender specific identities and behaviours, can be learned or intensified, during this school to work process. As discussed in Chapter Two, historically boys entered apprenticeships in their early to mid- teens and finished or ‘came out’, after six or seven years when they reached maturity (Hanawalt, 1993). From this timing, it can be reasoned that a male youth would be bound in apprenticeship during that period of life when establishing an adult identity is considered to be of crucial importance.

Leszczynski and Strough (2008) argue that the gender intensification during this crucial formative period may have a variety of causes such as the effects of puberty, socialisation by parents and peers as well as cognitive maturation. However, the importance of peers, particularly in homosocial environments, is emphasised as key in a social-cognitive understanding of gender identity as they may ‘...cue gender-typed aspects of identity in specific situations’ (ibid., 2008: 721), such as those experienced in close personal situations afforded by apprenticeships. As will be revealed in the next chapter, this form of self-

stereotyping is also an aspect of social identity theory (SIT) (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), where individuals assume what they see as the positive aspects of a group’s identity.

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In conclusion, by participating in the adult occupational community of practice of work, the apprentice also participates in multiple communities of practice in which they follow separate trajectories (Wenger, 1998). Therefore, work can be seen as providing a social environment that allows a youth a degree of

engagement with the adult social world. Through legitimate peripheral

participation in the community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) provided by work, apprenticeships can be perceived as granting access to multiple

communities of practice, or rather a constellation of practice in which adult identities can be constructed as a ‘nexus of multimembership’ (Wenger, 1998: 158).

3.4 Summary

In this chapter, I have identified a range of theories which will be used

throughout this thesis to examine my contention that serving an apprenticeship during the mid to late 20th _{century, contributed to the participants’ induction into}

adulthood, and the creation of an adult identity through a nexus of

multimembership in a constellation of practice. I have used the framework of symbolic interactionism to conceptualise individuals as reflective beings who shape, and are shaped by social interaction with others around them.

Therefore, the negotiation and renegotiation of identities has been revealed as an ongoing process. I have described by using Bourdieu’s theories, how

communities reproduce themselves through the use of social capital, by sharing views and dispositions: that is, their habitus. I have also contended that the lens of bounded agency allows us to understand how individuals make choices in the light of their structural circumstances and of their own ability to exercise personal agency.

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The concept of ‘standard adulthood’ was introduced as a ‘convenient fiction’ (Lee, 2001) or a trope, to describe a collection of personal goals, and a recognised status to which young people aspired during the research timeframe. Similarly, the concept of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ was used to

describe a standard against which locally constructed types of masculinity were measured. From this discussion of situated learning theory and most

significantly the concept of legitimate peripheral participation, the relevance of these terms to the maturation process undergone by a youth during an

apprenticeship has been clarified. Whilst not providing a complete explanation of the maturation process, situated learning theory provides a starting point for a greater understanding of youth transitions. The next chapter examines the place of work in society and investigates how it impacts on young people’s identity formation.

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