Chapter 14: Bridging Two Worlds

This chapter attempts to use the concept of communities of practice (CoPs) to describe the process of professional learning in a student-run consulting group. The central thesis put forward is that CoP within educational settings can act as intermediary zones between university and professional settings, providing students with opportunities to learn social and professional norms that would be difficult to acquire in traditional classroom settings. Drawing on theories of ritual and identity in organizations (e.g., Pratt, 2000; Trice & Beyer, 1993), the chapter examines a completely student-run consulting practice within a business school. The consulting practice draws on university support and professorial expertise, but its managerial processes are centered around a self-selected group of students that is best described as a CoP. It is argued that this student group, through various means of socialization and competency development, constructs a space inbetween institutionalized fields that eases the transition between educational and work settings.