Learning is fundamentally social. Learning is really a matter of changing identity, not just acquiring knowledge. That knowledge is integrated in the life of communities. When people develop and share values, perspectives, and ways of doing things, they create a community of practice. The challenge to all of us in education, on behalf of students and organizations, is to create, negotiate, nurture, and sustain the communities of practice in which effective learning takes place.

(Peter Henschel, 1949-2002)