Virginia Tech
Not All Who Wander are Lost: An Ethnographic Study of Individual Knowledge Construction within a Community of Practice
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThis focused ethnography of Appalachian Trail (AT) long-distance hikers explored the situated and informal nature of individual knowledge construction as mediated through a community of practice. Unlike place-based or cyber-bound communities, the ever-changing membership and location dynamics of AT hikers offered a unique and researchable community for study. The complex and understudied sensemaking trajectories of individuals moving through this mobile community were investigated over three years through in-depth interviews and participant observations. Inductive analysis of expert and novice stories illuminated experiential patterns and collective traditions that comprise the AT learning culture. In contrast to traditional approaches to knowledge and skill acquisition, this study found socio-reflective exchanges, nested in hiking pods, to be critical sites for cognitive modeling and informal scaffolding between experts and novices. The situated encounters and developmental support of these nomadic pods were found to facilitate individuals' construction of community-based knowledge.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Ph. D.
- Level thesis:degree_level
- doctoral
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Learning Sciences and Technologies
- Department dc:contributor.department
- Learning Sciences and Technologies
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2007
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Siudzinski, Robert Andrew
- Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Hicks, David
- Doolittle, Peter E.
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- Uysal, Muzaffer S.
- Burton, John K.
Subjects
dc:subject × 7Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- In Copyright
- Licence dc:rights.uri
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- etd-05232007-163221
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/27864