The integrated pedagogy in Alcoholics Anonymous as a community of practice

The integrated pedagogy in Alcoholics Anonymous as a community of practice In this paper I have studied the integrated pedagogy in Alcoholics Anonymous using Wenger’s theoretical model of communities of practice and from a point of view of situated learning. Focus has been on recovery from alcohol addiction as a process of social identity change where learning is seen as an appropriation of artefacts by an interaction between participation and reification which leads to a higher level of competence and a change in identity. A diversity of methods has been used such as text analysis of printed material from AA in combination with direct observations at AA-meetings and qualitative interviews with long-time, high intensity participants in the AA-community. The results indicate that Alcoholics Anonymous has a powerful pedagogic system in which a whole of norms, principles and stories are represented in all its parts. The interviewed participants report similar changes in identity and capacity to function in life, despite the differences between them in background as well as in which part of the specific activities in AA they focused on during their trajectory in AA. The study has limitations though all the participants are long-time sober members with a strong identification as members of AA and consequently not representative for the cohort of attenders at AA. The background search for literature makes it clear that the phenomenon of Alcoholics Anonymous is practically not studied from a pedagogical perspective which opens possibilities for future research