Definition
Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) is a learning theory developed by Lave and Wenger that describes how newcomers become experienced members within a community of practice through gradually increased participation.
Core Components
Legitimate Peripheral Participation
In LAVE and WENGER's monograph, however, the theory of LPP more specifically grows out of a description of apprenticeship in five communities of practice, namely a community of 1) midwives, 2) tailors, 3) quartermasters, 4) butchers and 5) alcoholics in recovery. Central to LLP in these communities is that there is very little observable teaching; "the more basic phenomenon is learning" (LAVE & WENGER, 1991 p.92). The learning activity in itself seems to be characterized by a specific pattern:
"There are strong goals for learning because learners, as peripheral participants, can develop a view of what the whole enterprise is about, and what there is to be learned. Learning itself is an improvised practice; a learning curriculum unfolds in opportunities for engagement in practice. It is not specified as a set of dictates for proper practice" (1991, p.93; italics added).
Breaking LPP down is also helpful in understanding the term. Legitimate means membership in the CoP. Newcomers may not yet be full participants but they are legitimately there. Peripheral is less obvious in that it does not signal a set periphery and center to the CoP, but instead speaks to the starting point of understanding and skill of the newcomers. Participation refers to doing the work of the CoP.
LPP relates to learning in that it is the transformation of identity as the newcomer becomes more conversant and skillful in the practices of the CoP. This is a very different view of learning than, let’s say, the information processing (IP) metaphor. IP assumes that the world is an objective set of information that can be inputted through the senses, to be filtered and associated with prior knowledge. Long-term, and to some extent short-term memory can be drawn upon for future use.