In the construction industry, there is an increased awareness of the importance of soft skills. However, no empirical studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of pedagogical strategies in higher education to improve the soft skills of future construction managers.
The main aim of the research was to explore how undergraduate students of the construction sciences construe the identities of construction workers and whether their views have been changed through their retelling of and reflecting on the career stories of these workers. It was anticipated that the results would give an indication of whether the students’ ‘soft skills’ can be improved through curricular interventions.
The research was situated in a module on academic and professional literacy for students of Construction Economics at a large residential university in Gauteng. The module serves as an adjunct to a core module in Building Science.
Theoretically, the article is underpinned by Critical Multicultural Education, and methodologically, it is based on theories of narratives and storytelling. The primary instruments of data gathering were students’ narrative reconstructions of the career stories of construction workers that were gathered through personal interviews. The student narratives were analysed using the qualitative data analysis program AtlasTi.
Four themes emerged from the analysis of the narratives – personal characteristics, sponsors/enablers, challenges and agency – while the analysis of students’ critical reflections on their narratives pointed towards an understanding that career success is determined by diligence and work ethics, rather than circumstances.
An important change that occurred in students’ perceptions about construction workers is a realisation that successful workers are driven by an internal locus of control and are not derailed by adverse circumstances. The changed attitudes go beyond tolerance and reduced stereotyping. It is recommended that in order to deliver well-rounded graduates to the construction industry, multiple opportunities should be created in the curricula for modules focused on the acquisition of ‘hard’ as well as ‘soft’ skills.
Well-rounded professionals (professionals with ‘hard’ as well as ‘soft’ skills) in the built environment are of the utmost importance to provide infrastructure necessary to support economic well-being and quality of life in the modern world (Othman
In the construction industry, ‘hard skills’ primarily refer to knowledge of and the ability to apply construction methods and techniques and the ability to perform cost estimation techniques such as preparation of tenders (SACPCMP
Soft skills have become increasingly important in the construction industry, because it is rapidly moving from an industry focused on the delivery of technical services to a service industry that competes in the global marketplace (Shakir
The construction industry has become more reliant on tertiary education and training programmes to supply the work force for an increasingly complex and demanding work environment (Bilbo
In South African higher education there is an increased awareness of the importance of soft skills. Firstly, soft skills are explicitly mentioned in the graduate outcomes specified by the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions, who accredits degrees in construction in South Africa (
In the business environment, narratives have been successfully used to promote the development of soft skills as well as knowledge transfer. Published research studies on storytelling in business organisations include Boje’s (
However, no empirical studies have been found on the use of narratives in formal training programmes to promote the development of soft skills. Although the above-mentioned studies touch on the implications of using narratives in training contexts, none of them have been conducted in formal tertiary education settings. In addition, they lack clear pedagogical frameworks and educational approaches.
Critical Multicultural Education offers a viable framework for pedagogy as well as research on soft skills training that makes use of narrative methodologies. Critical Multiculturalism in education seeks to create an open and culturally diverse education. It conceptualises culture as dialectical and full of tensions, rather than coherent, orderly and predictive (Kubota
Critical Multicultural Education is closely linked to service-learning approaches in Higher Education, as expounded by Boyle-Baise (
To explore the issue of curricular support in cultivating soft skills in a diverse workplace – within the framework of Critical Multicultural Education – the following research questions were asked:
How do students pursuing degrees in the construction sciences construe the identities of construction workers with no formal qualifications?
How are students’ perceptions about the identities of construction workers changed as a result of engagement around the construction workers’ life stories?
Question 1 was aimed at providing students of the construction sciences with a method or tool to better understand construction workers socially and culturally and what may drive them to exhibit certain behaviour (Sunindijo & Zhou
Narrative inquiry was considered to be an appropriate methodological paradigm for the research. As a research method in the social sciences, it has been established through the work of scholars such as Polanyi (
In alignment with Critical Multicultural Education, I intended to conduct narrative research with a transformative aim (Denzin & Giardina
In the analysis of the (re)storied narratives (of construction workers) by first-year students, I was interested in both content and form and how the students’ narrative constructions conform to or resist dominant discourses. My ultimate aim was to explore the possible changes in the students’ conceptions regarding the knowledge and values contributed to the building industry by workers at the lower end of the professional spectrum.
A major assignment for a first-semester core module on Building Science in the BSc programme in Construction Management at a large residential university in Gauteng requires students to write a comprehensive report on a site visit. Students have to identify a suitable construction site to visit once or more weekly. The construction activities have to be documented by taking notes, making drawings, taking photographs and interviewing the builder, project manager, architect, contractor and general workers. They also need to consult a variety of primary sources on building construction and integrate the primary and secondary data. ‘Correct use of reference techniques’, ‘Proper use of language and spelling’ and ‘Professional layout’ as additional requirements are also demanded (Department of Construction Economics
An adjunct module, Academic and Professional Literacy for Construction Economics, provides cognitive as well as communicative scaffolding for the compilation of the report. When assessing students’ site visit reports during 2013, I found very little evidence of social and communicative interaction on site. Students seldom reported on interviews, especially with general workers and artisans. Therefore, it was decided to include an assignment in the academic and professional literacy curriculum that would create space for students to interact with workers who may be overlooked as sources of knowledge and experience. Each small group of three to five students had to interview at least one worker on their career history, transcribe the interview, convert it to a narrative essay and reflect on how the interview had changed their perceptions about workers in the construction industry.
The population comprised students registered for BSc programmes in Quantity Surveying, Construction Management and Real Estate and who were simultaneously registered for an adjunct module in academic and professional literacy in 2014. The sample consisted of 65 students, who constituted themselves in groups of 3–5 (17 groups). Each group chose a particular construction site for their research. The sample was both convenient and purposive, in that I fulfilled the roles of both course designer and lecturer. Approximately 50% were white students, while the other half comprised black students, mixed-race students and Asian students.
The construction workers were purposively sampled during one of the students’ weekly visits. The interviewees comprised 15 black workers and 2 Asian workers. A third of the black interviewees (5) had not completed school or received any career training, two had limited practical training (a heavy vehicle driver’s license and a certificate to operate excavating equipment, respectively), six occupied supervisory positions (stock managers, foremen and site managers) without having obtained a National Senior Certificate (NSC) and two were self-employed sub-contractors who had improved their skills through practice training, and eventually became entrepreneurs. Both the Asian interviewees had at least an NSC qualification.
The following set of questions was provided to the students as a guideline for structuring their interviews with the workers:
Please share (tell us) your name, and what your trade is called. Please also describe your duties and responsibilities.
Where did you grow up, and which school did you attend?
Where did you start your work as an X (carpenter, bricklayer, plumber, etc.)?
Were you trained to do this work? If you were, what kind of training did you receive?
Please tell us about the people who played important roles in your training or your working career (some may have helped you, and others may have made it difficult for you to get ahead).
What do you enjoy most about your job?
What challenges do you face on a daily basis?
What have you done/achieved in your career as an X that you are proud of?
What changes have you seen in your trade/working conditions over the years, and what changes would you like to see in the future?
What is your advice to someone interested in becoming an X (plumber, carpenter, etc.)?
Is there anything else you want to tell us?
All interviews had to be transcribed, and a narrative essay of approximately 750–1000 words (based on the interview data) had to be written. The introduction was to contain a contextualising sentence to introduce the interviewee, a thesis statement and an outline of the main points of the essay. To write the body of the essay, students had to read through their notes and listen to the recording of the interview, write down three or five main themes or ideas related to the identity of the worker that featured prominently during the interview and write a chronological narrative with main ideas and supporting detail, making sure that the body paragraphs supported the thesis statement. It should be noted that the freedom to select salient topics introduced inherent ‘data loss’ in the procedure. The essay had to be concluded by ‘a critical reflection on new meaning’ that the students constructed for themselves by listening to the interviewees, for example, how their perceptions about people in certain categories of jobs may have changed, and how they might act differently when engaging with the workers (as managers) on site in the future.
The recordings and the transcripts had to be submitted together with the essays. If the interview was conducted in a language other than English or Afrikaans, an English translation of the transcript had to be produced. A research assistant was appointed to check the accuracy of the transcripts against the recordings. However, in some instances, the quality of the sound files was very poor, and eventually, the transcripts were the only evidence of the full scope of the raw data.
Written permission to use students as data gatherers and respondents was obtained from the Head of the Department of Construction Economics, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment and the Registrar of the University. Thereafter, ethical clearance for the project was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Humanities.
Students had to obtain written consent from the interviewees on site to conduct the interviews and to use the interview data for research purposes. In turn, all the students had to submit a signed letter of consent to allow the analysis of their narratives by the researcher. In total, 17 narratives, accompanied by the original sound or video recordings, were submitted.
Firstly, the narratives were read individually and annotated in the margins. Linguistic items that drew my attention – mostly lexical features and direct quotes – were underlined. This assisted me in recording my initial impressions, which I developed into coding categories. The emerging codes were entered into the ‘code manager’ of the software program AtlasTi, version 7. Fundamentally, grounded theory analysis principles were used (Strauss & Corbin
From the qualitative content analysis of the workers’ narratives, four broad themes emerged: personal characteristics, sponsors/enablers, challenges and agency. A fifth theme, informal apprenticeship, partially overlaps with sponsors. These themes will be discussed by referring to the codes or primary categories they comprise. Quotes will be supplied to support the salience of the codes within the themes. In all instances, pseudonyms will be used to protect the anonymity of the respondents and third persons mentioned in their responses.
Generally, the interviewees were construed in a positive light. The students highlighted the following personality and character traits:
The notion of
Workers’
Judged by the way that students portray certain workers, hand (diligence) and heart (passion and joy) operate in close relation to each other. About Nelson, it is said that ‘[
Across culturally diverse groups, students admired the
‘Elias is full of hope, and looking at the way he has come,
and:
‘He wants to be a contractor one day with his own company and an estimated team of a 100 people. Joseph has big dreams for the future and
The term ‘sponsor’ has been derived from the work on literacy narratives by Barton and Hamilton (
It is surprising that
In five narratives (three written by predominantly black groups and two by predominantly white groups), the students emphasise the benevolence, foresight and facilitating role of
A discourse that still dominates in many communities is that black workers are treated poorly by white managers. For example, on 24 December 2013, Vincent Masoga, National Media Officer of SATAWU (the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union), writes: ‘Workers, majority black, still remained treated as slaves and undignified minions of repressive white bosses in this democratic dispensation’ (Masoga
The pertinence of the code
‘Growing up in Zimbabwe, Tinashe dreamed of coming to South African to provide for his family. With a wife and two children living in Zimbabwe would not have given them the life they deserved. That is why he and his family moved to South Africa. […] Compassionately [
The fact that four of the essays provide evidence of stable nuclear families constituting a support system for breadwinning workers run counter to the almost universal myth of black men fathering children and then abandoning them and their mother (Coles & Green
According to Ncwadi and Dangalazana (
Given the dominant discourse of low wages and unacceptable working conditions in the construction industry, I anticipated that the interviewees without formal qualifications would dwell on the many challenges they had to face. However, contrary to my expectations, structural challenges do not feature prominently in their narratives. Although more than half of the interviewees indicated that they had not completed school, they are not construed as laying blame on any person or institution. Compare, for instance, phrases such as ‘circumstances forced him to make decisions in order to provide for his family’; ‘He attended three schools in his early days but he did not complete his schooling career’; ‘Life became so expensive and it was difficult for me to continue with my studies’ (direct quote from the interview). This focus on the outcome rather than its causes may be ascribed to the workers’ assessment of what is appropriate to convey in an interview with young strangers from the middle class or it may be a construal of the students’ subconscious guilt about their own positions of privilege.
Other challenges mentioned by the black workers include
The theme agency functions as an effect of the causal themes personal characteristics and sponsors/enablers, whereas challenges stand in a functional relationship of ‘despite x, y occurred’. The theme agency is constituted by two codes:
One of the stories about
A precursor of agency is a conscious or unconscious decision to take responsibility for your own life and desiring to change your circumstances volitionally. Such changes are often the result of
The themes informal apprenticeship and agency are bi-directionally related. Having acquired skills through an apprenticeship builds self-confidence, which leads to agency. Agency, on the other hand, could make an informal apprenticeship successful through willingness to learn from experienced others. I assigned the code
Pavlenko (
Codes, themes and relationships on worker identities emerging from the data.
The schematised results of the content analysis point to agency as the primary determinant of career success in the lives of construction workers. Agency, in turn, is catalysed by three main factors: personal characteristics, sponsors and informal apprenticeships, provided to them by some of the sponsors. On the other hand, agency may be potentially inhibited by challenges, if they are not resisted or managed. Contrary to my expectations, I observed no marked differences between the narratives of groups comprising predominantly white or black students. The themes that precipitated occurred across the narratives written by different cultural groups.
I now turn to what students perceived to have learnt through the interviewing and writing of the narratives.
Critical reflection occupies a central place in models aimed at improving intercultural understanding and in consciousness-raising practices (Freire
‘This tells us that the challenges that we are facing now does [
‘Thabo is a great example of someone who rose above their circumstances and made life better for themselves and their families.’
‘Coming from a disadvantaged background should not be your limitation.’
‘Our interview with Samson taught us that you don’t always have to have the highest qualifications to be happy and enjoy your job.’
From a social literacies perspective (Gee
The second theme that emerged from students’ reflections on what they had learnt is that diligence and work ethics are the most important determinants of career success. Instantiations of this theme include the following:
‘There is [
‘He [
‘Piet teaches us that with hard work and determination we can succeed in this field.’
‘What truly matters is the unquenchable thirst for knowledge and hard work to build your dreams into reality.’
‘It is important to always stay professional especially in the built environment, and be clinical [
Thus, in general, the students regarded personal dispositions (work ethics) and diligence as determinants of success. When comparing the students’ reflections with the findings from the qualitative content analysis, important overlaps could be observed. However, I realised that I had overlooked the outcome of satisfying work endeavours: success, which was then added to the theoretical model, as indicated by
Addition of ‘career success’ to the theoretical model on worker identities derived from the analyses of the student narratives.
Conclusions may be drawn regarding the effectiveness of the pedagogy of narrative analysis as well as the results of analysing the student narratives and the students’ reflections on the process of narrative knowledging. Regarding the pedagogy of narrative re-storying, evidence was provided that the learning experience engaged students in a critique of knowledge production and assisted them to (re)negotiate their own identities in relation to others in the building industry.
Secondly, the researcher’s analyses of the student narratives indicated that agency is the most important predictor of success for construction workers. Agency, in turn, is driven by personal characteristics and the roles that significant others have played in offering opportunities, such as informal apprenticeships. However, agency may be constrained by challenges that are either not resisted or not managed. This is indeed a positive finding, which powerfully negates the stereotype of black South African workers as an ignorant majority that lacks the personal dispositions to get ahead in life, as well as the self-awareness to assess gaps in their knowledge, skills and abilities and seek to improve themselves accordingly. What all students of construction economics may take from these results is the importance of identifying and developing employees’ personal strengths and providing them with opportunities, both formal and informal, for career advancement. On the other hand, future managers should be sensitised to the common barriers to career success and job satisfaction. Where possible, the barriers or the potential causes of harm should be removed; and where the effects have already occurred, they should be managed and mitigated.
Finally, the analysis of students’ critical reflections on what they had learned and how their perceptions of workers had changed demonstrates a realisation that successful workers are driven by an internal locus of control and are not derailed by adverse circumstances. Contrary to common stereotypical beliefs about black workers, the majority of the interviewed workers were self-reflective individuals who overtly ascribed success to work ethics. One (white) student acknowledged that before given this assignment he had thought that Black Economic Empowerment was one of the worst nightmares to face him as a construction manager. Before embarking on the interview assignment, he was convinced that workers’ laziness and lack of ambition were the major stumbling blocks in running a profitable construction business.
A limitation of the research was the duration of the academic literacy module (one semester), which did not allow me to probe whether students’ transformed perceptions translated into transformed practice. A further limitation is linked to the research design. When researchers (in this case the students) restory others’ narratives, they are imposing meaning on these persons’ lived experience. Bell (
The contribution of Ms Linda-Anne Alston in planning the narrative assignment and providing feedback on the interview questions as well as the first draft of the article is duly acknowledged.
The author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.