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Etienne Wenger

Learning theorist who, with Jean Lave, developed the concepts of communities of practice and situated learning.

Etienne Wenger (also Etienne Wenger-Trayner) is a learning theorist who, with Jean Lave, developed the theory of situated learning and communities of practice. His work argues that learning is fundamentally a social process of participating in shared practices, not a matter of individual knowledge acquisition.

Core ideas

  • Communities of practice: groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through regular interaction. Defined by mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire.
  • Identity and learning: Wenger argues that learning transforms who we are — participation in communities of practice shapes identity, not just knowledge.

Notable works

  • Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (1991, with Jean Lave)
  • Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (1998)

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Date created

Cite

@misc{emsenn2026-etienne-wenger,
  author    = {emsenn},
  title     = {Etienne Wenger},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Learning theorist who, with Jean Lave, developed the concepts of communities of practice and situated learning.},
  url       = {https://emsenn.net/library/general/domains/people/etienne-wenger/},
  publisher = {emsenn.net},
  license   = {CC BY-SA 4.0}
}