Here’s a copy of an essay titled, Sociocultural learning within craft communities of practice.

Also, here’s a copy in pdf format.

I hope that you enjoy it and as always, I welcome all comments.

Abstract

As craft production is a social enterprise, this document outlines the educational role of sociocultural theory within craft communities. Craft practitioners, whether they are aware of it or not, form themselves into groups which serve as their community and assist in the sharing of knowledge; relevant to this social clustering are the concepts of situated learning, cognitive apprenticeship and activity theory. The purpose of this paper is to raise the awareness among studio art educators and craft practitioners as to the role of sociocultural learning in naturally occurring groups.

Dennis Stevens, San Jose, California