"peripheral participants" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to refer to individuals or groups involved in an activity in a less substantial way than the main players. For example, "There were several peripheral participants in the meeting, but the key decision makers were the core team members."
Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families.
For instance, GitHub is a community made up of fairly prolific editors who may all know each other, as well as more occasional or peripheral participants, who may tweak the odd line of code here or there, but are not central to the community.
Despite this passivity, these users are still seen as benefiting from the network as 'legitimate peripheral participants'.
COP theory (Lave and Wenger 1991) provides an account of how students learn in the clinical environment as peripheral participants in medical practice and emphasises the importance of access to senior figures in this process.
In Wenger and Lave's theory of communities of practice, students in lectures could be seen as being "legitimate peripheral participants" of the professional medical community, engaging in joint activities and discussions, building relationships that help them learn from each other to develop a common professional identity [ 32].
The U.S., by comparison, is still a peripheral participant.
It is a matter of connection one builds with communities--first as a legitimately peripheral participant, but gradually as a full participant (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
There are similarities between students' descriptions of their roles and their expectations of supervisors in this study and the position of the legitimate peripheral participant in situated learning.
According to situated learning theory, the legitimate peripheral participant (the student) gains progressively more responsibilities and becomes more and more like a supervisor who can teach other new participants in the community.
(Medical School 1, PS9, 12 month follow-up, quartile 4) Communication skills can be practised as a peripheral participant, but expert communication such as is required when breaking bad news requires the participant to have moved to the centre of the community.
Further study is underway to determine if, and why, patients are willing to accept long-term students as peripheral legitimate participants in their health care teams.
