ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the video excerpt for evidence of the ways in which the participants constitute a discourse community in the process of reacculturation into the medical community they aspire to join. It explores several features of transition communities and considers the challenges these features pose for others interested in the design and analysis of transition communities. These features include the multiple agendas confronting a transition community, the intra- and interpersonal issues, and the role of the coach in transition communities. One of the most interesting challenges offered by the sociocultural perspective is to engage in analysis in a manner that reflects the interplay of cognitive, social, motivational, emotional, and identity processes. Reflecting a sociocultural perspective, Kenneth Bruffee argued that it is through participation in discourse communities that individuals can acquire and refine the language, ways of reasoning, and tools of the new community to which they aspire.
