Ecologies of participation in school classrooms

The concept of legitimate peripheral participation was developed by considering informal learning contexts. However, its applicability to school classrooms is problematic. This is particularly so when teacher centred and decontextualised procedural practices predominate as they do in usual school mathematics classrooms. Different meanings of participation in community of practice theory are identified. The applicability of legitimate peripheral participation to school mathematics classrooms is critiqued by considering: the nature of social practice, learning relationships, power, agency, and identity. Different forms of participation in school mathematics are discussed and the concept of ecologies of participation is proposed as a means to understand the complexity and multidimensionality of participation in both formal and informal learning contexts.