week 6 - task 1 - CofP's

Community of Practices (CofP), from what I understand, are where members of the CofP share the same interests and goals and they will have similar experiences. It is where people can further their knowledge of that practice. As Wenger states, the members of the CofP will hold discussions about topics that are directly linked to the CofP.
Even though I am not a part of a dance school anymore, this is my chosen CofP to discuss because it has played a large part in my life and I have only just recently stopped attending.

Whats is it about (joint enterprise): The people attending the dance school go there with the same goal: to learn a dance routine and dance steps to perform in competitions and within shows and also exams. This, I would say, is the main joint enterprise which the members of the CofP associate with. Within my CofP there are set members which attend every week. During the classes discussions between the members of the CofP are based around the dance steps and how we could improve our dancing techniques. Even when we used to walk to the shop to get our lunch, the conversation was usually based around dancing and our up coming shows. We even used to dance our way down the street trying to help each other improve our steps!
How it functions: Thinking about how the dance school functions as a CofP this is in reference to the relationships of mutual engagement that bind the members together into a, as Wenger states, "social entity". The dance school I attended, bound its members into a social entity as we were all there to learn the same routine and to perform together in exams, shows and competitions and if one of us went wrong then this may affect the others routine. We were a team who had a shared purpose for being there.
In addition to this there is a form of hierarchy within the dance school. The lady who runs the school is obviously the one with the most power and therefore at the top of the hierarchy. Then there is our individual dance instructors who each have higher experience and knowledge with dancing than the girls attending the school and classes. We are there to learn the routines that they have created, they are our teachers and are therefore in a higher position of power than us going there to learn.
What capability has it produced: Within the dance school there is a shared repetoire of communal resources that the members have developed over time. Firtsly, most of the members know the same routines (unless of course you joined the school a bit later and maybe missed out on learning one of the routines). Secondly, the language used to discuss the different dance steps is something that you'd only understand if you had knowledge of dancing or if you were a dancer and knew the steps. For example, some of you probably wouldn't know what a 'chasse' is, but if you were a part of the dance school this would be common knowledge to you and a second language of yours. It is also common knowledge within the group that if you don't train hard or stay focused upon the dancing, then you won't do as well in your dancing exams and sometimes you may not be chosen to take part in a show.

If somebody leaves the CofP or is no longer a member, then the CofP doesn't collapse, it continues to exist because there is new members joining all the time. I am no longer a part of the dance school but it is still a dance school today with new members filling in the gaps of where you have left. Members leave all of the time because of things like starting university and having to move away, or not having the time to continue dancing but it is such a popular interest that I am pretty sure there will always be members at the dance school I used to attend.