Jean Lave is a

social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

who theorizes learning as changing participation in on-going changing practice. Her lifework challenges conventional theories of learning and education.

Education and career

Lave received a Bachelor's from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and completed her doctorate in social anthropology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1968. She taught at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

and is currently a

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Geography at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. In 1988, Lave published her first book, ''Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics and Culture in Everyday Life''. In it, she explores how arithmetic is used outside of school contexts, with implications for sociological understanding of the relationship between cognition, practice, culture, and society. For instance, she shows that grocery shoppers in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

who could successfully do the mathematics needed for comparison shopping were less able to do the same mathematics when they were presented with the same problems in a formal test. The work is considered a critique of learning transfer theory and challenges the drawing of sharp boundaries between theories of rationality and theories of everyday thought. In 1991, Lave pioneered the theories of

situated learning Situated learning is a theory that explains an individual's acquisition of professional skills and includes research on apprenticeship into how legitimate peripheral participation leads to membership in a community of practice. Situated learning " ...

and communities of practice with the publication of her seminal text, ''Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation'' (in collaboration with her student

Étienne Wenger __NOTOC__ Étienne Charles Wenger (born 1952) is an educational theorist and practitioner, best known for his formulation (with Jean Lave) of the theory of situated cognition and his more recent work in the field of communities of practice. L ...

). The theory of situated learning posits that, in the words of anthropologist Nigel Rapport, learning is a "social process" and that individuals "learn best, it is suggested, in a situation in which participants share a common identity and goals... in the middle of our lives, while doing other everyday things, alongside people with whom we identify." Furthermore, Lave's studies of

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

in this and subsequent works are recognized as a significant critique of

educational psychology Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences i ...

. As of March 2022, ''Situated Learning'' has been

cited A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

over 89,000 times.

Honors and awards

In 1989, Lave was named a Spencer Senior Scholar of the

Spencer Foundation The Spencer Foundation was established in 1962 by Lyle M. Spencer. This foundation makes grants to support research in areas of education that are widely construed. Founder Lyle M. Spencer was the founder of The Spencer Foundation. Spencer gre ...

. In 1994, Lave received the Sylvia Scribner Research Award from the

American Educational Research Association The American Educational Research Association (AERA, pronounced "A-E-R-A") is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and p ...

. In 2013, Lave was jointly awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American

Society for Psychological Anthropology The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...

with

Anthony F. C. Wallace Anthony Francis Clarke Wallace (April 15, 1923 – October 5, 2015) was a Canadian-American anthropologist who specialized in Native American cultures, especially the Iroquois. His research expressed an interest in the intersection of cultural a ...

. She holds honorary degrees from both Aarhus University, awarded in 2008, and the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, awarded in 2015.

Selected publications

Lave's published books include: *''Learning and Everyday Life: Access, Participation, and Changing Practice'' (2019) *''Apprenticeship in Critical Ethnographic Practice'' (2011) * ''History in Person: Enduring Struggles, Contentious Practice, Intimate Identities'' (edited with Dorothy Holland, 2000) *''Understanding Practice'' (co-authored with Seth Chaiklin, 1993) *''Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation'' (co-authored with Etienne Wenger, 1991) *''Cognition in Practice'' (1988) Wikibooks includes a
introduction to Lave's ideas

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lave, Jean American women anthropologists American educational theorists Women educational theorists People in educational technology Educational psychologists Sociologists of education 20th-century educational theorists 1939 births Living people Stanford University alumni Harvard University alumni University of California, Irvine faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty

Education and career

Honors and awards

Selected publications

See also

References