Classroom to boardroom: How a master teacher employs UCD/UX methods to write workplace knowledge
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Research indicates that technical communication programs of study prepare future practitioners, or they prepare future technical communication professors. In addition, technical communication scholarship does make interdisciplinary connections between with various related fields. However, there is little scholarship showing a benefit to including the work of teaching as one such related field. This qualitative case study was designed to explore with a sample population of Flight Test personnel from an aerospace corporation how and in what ways the intersection of teaching and technical communication impact workplace learning and knowledge. It was the researcher’s assumption that traditional training paradigms may fall short of permanence and transcendence because the trainer is a subject matter expert but not an accomplished, trained educator. In addition, the researcher assumed a benefit to workplace writing instruction that included the learners (users) in the instructional design process. To examine these assumptions, the instructor took an ethnographic approach to researching the context in which the writing work occurs, and how the writing functions in the flow of information. Primary data collection methods included observations, interviews, and surveys. Supportive methods included archival research and pretests/post-tests. The data were coded and organized according to the conceptual framework and research questions. An analysis and interpretation of the findings were synthesized into two main categories: (1) What technical communicators need to know about teaching and (2) What teachers need to know about UCD/UX. From these two main categories, the findings were further synthesized to answer the research questions. This case study supports that organizations are sites of learning, just like academic settings. While the work of teaching looks different in the workplace, there are surprising similarities. Additionally, this study revealed two thematic considerations of the role writing instruction played: (1) writing to learn and (2) learning to write. Further, this study provides insight into ways learners (users) can and, perhaps, should have input and voice in their own professional development. Last, this case study broadly argues that the symbolic-analytic work of technical communication, when layered with a teaching literacy, provides a new way of problem-solving, thus integrating the technical communicator into the workplace context in meaningful, valuable ways.
Author: Nancy L. Muncie
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3096539633