Learning in Communities of Practice: How to Become a Good Citizen in Self-Help Groups in Rural Tanzania

Abstract

This chapter conceptualizes self-help groups as communities of practice where learning citizenship practices experienced. Qualitative research through interviews and focus group discussions was employed for data collection in Mpwapwa District, Rural Tanzania. Drawing on (Lave and Wenger, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, 1991) notion of situated learning through legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, I analyze how participants describe their learning, and how they draw connections between being a good member in a group and exercising good citizenship more broadly. Findings show that participants learn to achieve main goal of development and care for others in various ways including participation in joint activities, imitating others and trial and error. A good member of the group is perceived as a good citizen, responsible in development of oneself and to others. Therefore, groups address challenges in their settings and portray a kind of citizenship that needs attention in development interventions.