A practicalities and experiences of being non-native english teachers in korea by sardor akramov. A student of

Community of Practice
A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a 
common interest in something they do and learn how to do it better as 
they interact regularly (Wenger, 2006). However, the word community 
suggests that there are shared images that involve behaviors, language, 
and other components that describe the importance of a community 
(Christiansen, 1999). Wenger (2006) stated that people interact in 
groups old or new and their identities influence one another. Wenger 
(1998) added that belonging to a society or to a group shapes our 
identity. To Wenger, identity is a negotiated experience. He stated that 
we define who we are by our engagement in communities of practice. 
Wenger (1998) suggested that participation shapes not only what we 
do, but also who we are and how we interpret what we do. Wenger 
outlines the importance of identity through community membership 
and the sense of belonging in the following section. The components 
include some of the following aspects: 
a) mutual engagement: being included in what matters is a 
requirement for being engaged in a community’s practice, just as 
engagement is what defines belonging; joint enterprise: it is the 
negotiated response to the type of situation in the community 
9and is not just a stated goal, but creates among the participants 
relationships of mutual accountability that become an integral 
part of the practice ; c) shared repertoire: It includes the discourse 

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by which members create meaningful statements about the 
world, as well as the styles by which they express their forms of 
membership and their identities as members. Mutual 
engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire are all part of 
the components that help clarify what aspects are important in 
belonging to a CoP. However, the most important attribute of 
Wenger’s discussion on a CoP is that identity is shaped through 
belonging and participating in a CoP. Wenger (1998) clarified that 
identity is commonly classified as self-image, but an identity “is a 
layering of events of participation and reification by which our 
experience and its social interpretation inform each other” (p. 
151). Wenger pointed out that as weexperience life and develop 
relationships with others in the world, we build layers that make 
up our identity through a combination of participation and 
reification. As Wenger explained, bringing participation and 
reification together through the negotiation of meaning, we 
construct our identity.