Including Critical Feminist Approaches in the Technical & Professional Communication Classroom: An Autoethnography throughout Changing Rhetorical Ecologies

Abstract

This research project analyzes one Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) course’s materials and one instructor’s (the researcher’s) incorporation of social justice through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over the course of ten years (2013-2022). The materials analyzed included introductory materials (syllabi and course schedules), lecture notes, genre examples displayed, assignments, class activities, and the Learning Management System (LMS). The researcher relies on a critical feminist approach tailored to TPC, which includes six key principles: permissive listening, generative silence, welcoming difference, multivocality, collaborative labor, and gendered technology. The specific method of analysis involves autoethnography that combined thematic analysis and critical reflexivity. The results of the research indicated that the earlier years (2013-2016) needed significant revisions in order to incorporate DEI; by the most recent year (2022), the instructor had implemented more explicit incorporation of DEI and had attempted to role model DEI practices through the course materials assessed. However, more DEI implementation could happen in future sections of the course. To encourage more DEI implementation in the future for all TPC courses, the researcher provided actions all instructors could take within the classroom and encouraged the use of human-centered approaches, like critical feminism, in the classroom when framing TPC work.