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A Qualitative Analysis Of Belonging In Communities Of Practice: Exploring Transformative Organizational Elements Within The Choral Arts, Aubrielle J. Holly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A qualitative analysis was conducted with a community choir as an exemplar of a community of practice. Semi-structured, collaborative interviews with eighteen of the choir’s members and eleven hours of field observation were conducted. The socialization process was briefly examined and discussed as it informed membership experiences in the choir. Four research questions were proposed to examine the ways in which the defining characteristics of communities of practice were communicatively enacted within the choral context. The construct of belonging was examined as an addition to Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice framework. Data analysis followed the grounded theory methodology of Strauss …