“Personally, I don’t like the whole interactioning thing”: Is a Classroom as a Community of Practice for Everyone?

This study, informed by Communities of Practice (CoP), Situated Learning (SL) and Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP), explored the case of a resistant student at the margin of an introductory Japanese classroom where an interactive and engaging mode of learning was implemented. Recent studies have noted that some students participate at the margin of classroom communities. Questions concerning such students’ participation, identity and learning at the margin have not received adequate attention. This qualitative case study employed a classroom ethnographic approach to gather data over a 13-week academic semester. It identified how one student’s disengaged participation, coming largely from the disjunction between the mode of learning in the course and her learning beliefs, turned her into having a rebellious identity at the very fringe of the class. This cautions us that CoP, SL, and LPP put into educational practices may not be for everyone.