Elizabeth, I would also recommend Etienne Wenger's new book Communities of
Practice. This sounds like a really exciting project and an area we are
interested here in Oxford in relation to a project we are developing about
Writing in the Workplace. Evidence from National Skills surveys in the UK
suggests that writing is a fundamental skill in the workplace, especially,
though not exclusively, for managers. The aim of our project is to
understand how people learn to do the various sorts of writing found in
workplace settings in order to inform school based practice. We are also
using AT and work place enculturation/socialisation seems to be a key part
of the learning process. Preliminary findings would also support your idea
of cashing in on cultural capital - English graduates and graduates from
what are considered to be prestigious universities by employers seem to have
the sort of capital that you describe, and which enables these individuals
to ride against the rest of the community.
Geoff Hayward
Lecturer in Educational Studies and SKOPE Research Fellow
University of Oxford
Department of Educational Studies
15 Norham Gardens
Oxford
OX2 6PY
Phone: 01865 274007
Fax: 01865 274024
-----Original Message-----
From: Helena Worthen [mailto:hworthen@igc.org]
Sent: 12 April 2000 13:32 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: Workplace enculturation and authority
Elizabeth -- sounds as if you are on a very interesting path.
I'd say read Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral
Participation, a small book put out by Cambridge U Press in 1991 (sorry, I
don't have it in front of me right now so this may not be 100% correct)
which
will help you get from thinking of acculturation as an exchange to thinking
of
it as initiation into a context of activity -- from ladders to circles.
I'd love to hear how you came to choose this topic.
Helena Worthen, Assistant Professor
University of Illinois
Chicago Labor Education Program
Elizabeth A Wardle wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> Since I am a first-time poster, let me introduce myself. I am a PhD
student
> in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at Iowa State University in
> Ames, Iowa. I am studying this semester with David Russell and currently
> working on an activity theory paper for his course. He suggested that when
> I felt coherent enough about my work I send you all an email explaining it
> and asking for feedback. Today I feel especially coherent, so I thought
I'd
> give it a try. :)
>
> I am currently studying workplace enculturation, specifically
enculturation
> into non-apprenticeship workplaces. What I am most interested in at the
> moment is how new workers gain/retain/negotiate authority within their new
> communities of practice. I rely heavily on Bourdieu for much of my
> understanding of authority: some authority must be bestowed by an
> institution (although not necessarily a literal one), but some authority
> also depends on the neophyte worker's ability to successfully cash out
> his/her cultural capital (skills, knowledge, expertise, what have you).
>
> My current research subject is an interesting case. He has not succeeded
in
> mastering the codes and conventions of his new community, despite the fact
> that he was (eventually) given some mentors to lead him through the maze
of
> unwritten rules. At times my subject seems to actually intentionally
> disregard community conventions. The result has been a loss of authority
> for him, in the eyes of his community. However, he's keeping (and probably
> will keep) his job because he is a computer expert: he has some cultural
> capital that is in high demand and he would be difficult to replace. So on
> he goes, flouting the community's conventions governing use of tools and
> division of labor--yet he remains in his position. My fledgling theory
> about this is that computer experts see computers as both the tool and the
> object. Then they go work in communities of practice that see computers
> only as a tool. My computer expert has never learned to understand or
value
> the objects of his new activity system (teaching and research) and he
> probably never will. In fact, I would argue that he doesn't even see
> himself as a part of their activity system. I'm wondering if this is a
> trait of computer administrators in general--and something that might
> deserve further study.
>
> My question for you all is this: can you think offhand of any
> books/articles that are must-reads for me? As I said, Bourdieu is my
> favorite theorist of the moment, closely followed by Vygotsky and AT in
> general. I've also found Patrick Dias' new book helpful. I'm still
> struggling with authority, though. It's tricky and slippery, yet is seems
> to me that understanding how it works is essential to understanding
why/how
> enculturation works or doesn't work. Then how dynamics authority is
> impacting/being impacted by technology. If you can think of any reading on
> the subject you'd recommend, I'd love to hear about it. And if any of the
> rest of you are studying issues of workplace enculturation, I'd love to
> talk with you, on or off the list.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Elizabeth
> ------------------------------
> Elizabeth A. Wardle <ewardle@iastate.edu>
> Doctoral Program in Rhetoric & Professional Communication
> Iowa State University of Science & Technology
> http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/phorum/
> www.public.iastate.edu/~ewardle
>
> "What good fortune for those in power that people do not think."
> --Adolf Hitler
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