The Role of Strategies of Practice-Based Learning for Becoming a Member of a Community of Practice

Oil and gas production involve potential danger to human lives, environment and economy. Everyday decisions and actions can lead to catastrophes. Production engineers are a group of people responsible for getting oil and gas from the subsurface reservoir to a processing plant. In order to do this in an efficient and safe manner the engineers require a set of skills that we argue they cannot get from education alone. In order to become proper production engineers, they have to become members of a community of practice. A knowledgeable production engineers must acquire a contextual understanding of the world of oil and gas production. However, this world changes from oil field to oil field. Hence, it is important that new engineers are initiated into the existing practices of the organization. Our primary question is, how are new members introduced to the community practices in order to become a knowledgeable engineer? We contribute by characterizing strategies and mechanisms for helping newcomers become knowledgeable members of a community.