Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

possible when experience ofmeaning interacts with a 'regime ofcompetence'. Both
experience and competence are constituents oflearning. They do not however, determine
each other or they may indeed even be out ofsync with each other.
Competence may drive experience (Wenger 1998). Sometimes a participant has to align
herselfwith a regime of competence. For participants to achieve the competence defined
by a community, they transform their experience until it fits within the regime.
Experience may drive competence. Ifone ofthe participants had an experience that fell
out ofthe regime of competence of a community, as a way ofasserting her membership,
she may attempt to change the community's regime ofcompetence so that it includes her
experience. To achieve this she may negotiate its meaning with the community of
practice, by inviting others to participate in her experience and may attempt to reify it for
them. "Ifthey have enough legitimacy, as members to be successful, they will have
changed the regime ofcompetence - created new knowledge in the process" (ibid.: 138)
Wenger (ibid.: 139) states, "This two-way interaction of experience and competence is
crucial to the evolution ofpractice. In it lies the potential for the transformation ofboth
experience and competence, and thus for learning individually and collectively".
3.3.2.8 The concept 'identity' as espoused by Wenger
The issue ofidentity is an integral part ofa social theory and as such cannot be separated
from issues ofpractice, community and meaning. A participant, in building an identity,
has to negotiate the meanings ofher experience ofmembership in social community. In
understanding the concept identity, one should avoid a simplistic individual-social
dichotomy (Wenger 1998). Using the concept identity in social terms, does not deny
individuality, but individuality is seen as something that is part ofthe practices of specific
communities. The focus should be on how the individual and the community mutually
constitute their identities. Each act ofparticipation and reification reflects the mutual
constitution (ofidentities) between individuals and collectives. There is a deep
connection between identity and practice. (ibid.). In developing a practice, members
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