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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain how peripheral participants contributed to and became more central members of a community of practice based in a social network that was used to support mobile learning approaches among post-compulsory education students. The notion was that in inducing participation through pedagogical strategies, individualised online presence could be increased that would support studentship, confidence and literacy improvements in participants who are normally apprehensive about online and formal learning contexts. Design/methodology/approach The network was used by four separate groups of 16-19 aged students and 19+ aged adults, with a constant comparison made of their activity and communication. A content analysis was made of students’ posts to the network, with the codes sorted thematically to examine how students used the network to support themselves and each other. Interviews were held with students across the two years to explore perceptions of the network and the community. Findings Peripheral participants navigate through ontological thresholds online to develop individual identity presence online. Increased communicated actions (“posts”) improves participation overall and the interaction of members in terms of developing a community of practice online. The results of communicated actions posted in visible online spaces improved the literacy control and willingness to publish content created by those peripheral participants. Research limitations/implications The study is taken from a small sample (approx. 100 students) in a case study comparing results across four different groups in an English Further Education college. Most of the positive results in terms of an impact being made on their literacy capability was found among adult students, as opposed to students in two 16-19 aged groups. Research implications identify hypothetical stages of identity presence online for reluctant and peripheral participants. This shows the potential of students to be induced to openly participate in visible contexts that can support further identity development. Practical implications The implications show that blended learning is necessary to improve the opportunity for mobile learning to happen. Blended learning in itself is dependent on and simultaneously improves group cohesion of learners in online communities. When students develop a momentum of engagement (and residence within) networks they exploit further technological features and functions and become more co-operative as a group, potentially reducing teacher presence. Learning activities need to support the peripheral participants in discrete and purposeful ways, usually achieved through personalised supported learning tasks. The notion and attention paid to the difficulties in bringing peripheral participants online has implications for the prescription of online learning as a form of delivery, especially among FE students. Social implications This paper problematizes the notion of peripheral participants and suggests they are overlooked in consideration of learning delivery, design and environments. Peripheral participants may be considered to be students who are at risk of not being involved in social organisations, such as communities, and vulnerable to diminished support, for instance through the withdrawal of face-to-face learning opportunities at the expense of online learning. Originality/value This paper makes a small contribution to theories surrounding communities of practice and online learning. By deliberately focusing on a population marginalised in current educational debate, it problematizes the growing prescription of online learning as a mode of delivery by taking the perspectives and experiences of peripheral participants on board.

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This empirical study examines the role of teacher educators' in developing the profession and professionalization of Initial Teacher Educators entering Post-Compulsory Education (PCE also referred to as FE for Further Education). Its writers -all post-compulsory teacher educators -explore the changes in the sector to confront a central ontological question of their work: is initial teacher education (ITE) out of step with the direction of a neoliberal education system? We draw from the narratives of teacher students to explore the tensions between the values located in their initial education experiences and the realities of the sector to reflect on our purpose as a teacher education team.The chapter traces changes in recent PCE history to show how a tilt towards marketization has transformed the sector and challenged the paradigm, values and perspectives of Initial Teacher Education professionals in HE. Arguments that 'neoliberalism, because of its nihilism, is an unworkable logic for teacher education' (Tuck 2013, 324) highlight the diminishing esteem of the teacher's role, from educator to 'classroom manager' and 'instructional designer'. Unrealistic measures and compliance agendas de-professionalizes teachers by inhibiting teacher thinking and acting (Priestley et al, 2017). Against this instrumentalist shift, we hold that teaching and education are philosophically, politically and artistically situated actions, requiring socially and politically informed teachers who reject performativity and the continual need to justify education. What PCE calls for is educators who will know when and how to initiate change within the human condition of teaching in FE. Teacher's reflexive world views can equip them in deciding their terms of being, their virtue and their coming into presence (Arendt 1958).We argue that PCE Teacher Educators must create and safeguard an intellectual space where teachers can contest the 'dangerous distortion of perceived reality and challenge the external powers that deprive of thinking and acting space' (Allen, 2002). The study highlights that it is through the irrationality of neoliberalism that teachers locate space to appear as moral thinking and acting subjects. A purpose of Initial Teacher Education is to support teachers to have the courage to tell the truth within risky situations and in dark times (Tamboukou 2012). In PCE, social and human interaction persists among policies and practices that involve a constant, complex and dynamic mix of power, challenge, confusion and choice. Where "policy as practice is 'created' in a trialectic of dominance, resistance and chaos/freedom" (Ball, 1994, 11), we assert that Initial Teacher Education must remain a focal point for the profession and an imperative pause and critical space for viewing the terrain that newly qualified teachers enter. Initial Teacher Education has to support BTs to navigate the shifting landscapes of FE environments to find their place, to safeguard reflexive judgements so that they can come into presence through word a...