The construction of identities in a practice community in the participants’ view

Abstract

In this article, it was proposed to analyze the identities construction in the view of the Community of Practice’s members, whose research participants were Elementary Education’s teachers  and higher education’s professors, undergraduate students, researchers and /or teacher trainers. To promote an understanding of identities,  the social learning theory was used, according to Etienne Wenger, according to theoretical foundation. The research was qualitative in nature and the data were produced through interviews. Data analysis suggests that constructed identities lead to different affiliation forms, which have thus been categorized: identity as multi-affiliation, identity as imagination and identity as engagement or mutual commitment. The results of this research indicate that the identities construction occurred through negotiations and changes in the members’  participation trajectories of this practice  community.