Pipe Fitters' Communication Practices

Context & Background

As plumbers grow older, they have reported that they often struggle to meet the job's physical demands. Therefore, the local union wanted to help plumbers-in-training gain managerial experience in their training. This would require some changes to the curriculum. Because of my background in researching vocational writing, I was appointed to research the communication practices of plumbing apprentices in their daily duties on the job. Our goal was to see if there were commonalities between the communicative practices that the apprentices employed on the job and Foothill College's general education requirements. If these practices aligned with these requirements, the apprentices could earn an Associate's degree while simultaneously completing their apprenticeship.

I interviewed stakeholders and explored the daily routines and documents used in the plumbing program.

Through our research, we found links between these practices and the educational requirements; these insights allowed the plumbing stakeholders to earn an Associate's degree.

Reflections & Recommendations

The plumbers walked us through documents like blueprints, memos, etc., and discussed the processes that go into their creation and iteration. These processes encompass many critical thinking that Foothill College necessitates when awarding an associate's degree.

The apprentices also took us through the process involved with writing invoices and how technical terms must be translated for a general populace, which satisfied Foothill’s requirement for using "collaborative thinking."

In addition to the documents they already create, apprentices should also make a written reflection on the artifact's creation to satisfy Foothill's requirement that students reflect on their processes.

Timeline

• 3 Months for initial interviews

• Additional six weeks of research after feedback from the curriculum committee

Research Goals

Learn about communication practices and documents that are used in daily practice
Learn about the creation and the functions of these documents
Explore the possibility of a connection between these documents and Foothill College’s general education requirements
(If necessary) Recommend additional materials to compensate for any deficits.

Methodology

Contextual Inquiry/Ethnographic research: I interviewed plumbers and plumbing managers about a typical day of practice. I also had the plumbers walk me through the documents used in practice (I could not join plumbers on the job for liability reasons).
Evaluative Research: Once we gathered notes from our interviews, we compared the plumbers' practice to the general education guidelines and tried to map out commonalities.

Recruitment

We interviewed and observed several types of stakeholders.

Apprentices currently enrolled in the plumbing Apprentice Program
Coordinators for Local 393's Apprentice Training Program

Sample Questions and Tasks

Three mainstay questions we utilized were:

Can you walk us through your interactions on the job on a typical day? With customers? With colleagues? With management?
Can you show us the documents you produce during the apprenticeship?
Can you explain the function of these documents?

Deliverables: We distilled our analysis into a chart that linked requirements to practices and submitted it to the curriculum committee.

Impact

Our insights into stakeholders' practices convinced the curriculum committee to give the plumbing apprenticeship accreditation. Because of this research, plumbing apprentices now have the option to earn an Associate's degree concurrently with their apprenticeship.

The insights we gained from the plumbing apprenticeship has catalyzed interest from other vocational programs having their programs researched so that their stakeholders may also pursue an Associate's degree.