Communities of Practice for Senior Volunteers: A Mutual Engagement Perspective

Abstract

Although the concept of communities of practice (CoPs) has been applied to many fields, the application within the context of the senior citizens' interaction must be different from those in the vocational arena. In Toy Clinic Shops (TCSs) in Taiwan, senior volunteers together sharpen their skills of repairing toys for school children, which can be viewed as a kind of CoP. Wenger (1998) has highlighted three factors for building a CoP. These include mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. Mutual engagement is known to be the foundation of the other two elements. However, what are the keys to constructing senior citizens' mutual engagement? The author of this study has attempted to explore senior citizens' interactions by studying TCSs in Taiwan to reveal keys to facilitating members' mutual engagement. The findings will, hopefully, contribute to our understanding about gerontology education and provide know how to organize CoPs for senior citizens.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Council, Taiwan, ROC, NSC 98-2410-H-194-053. Thanks to Dr. Malcolm Wren at the University of York for his assistance in the preparation of this paper in English, which greatly assisted the author.