Communication, Embodiment, and Learning in Voluntary Communities of Practice

This project examines aspects of communication, learning, and
embodiment within voluntary Communities of Practice. Using an
ethnographic approach, I will examine voluntary dance groups
and/or bell-ringing bands, focusing on the ways in which members
actively engage and progress from a peripheral position inwards
through situated learning. Adopting methods of multimodal microanalysis, I will also closely examine embodied practice, as
individuals teach and are taught these physical crafts. Drawing on
my own experiences as both a dance teacher and a bell-ringer, I
will set out to discover how instruction is formulated and received
within voluntary groups like these, how roles are adopted and
created in a context with less rigid, traditional power structures,
and how the cultural profiles of activities like dance and
campanology shape the experiences of learners