Pedagogy of Practice

The many studies on scientific and technical communication theory discuss the necessity of audience analysis in the classroom. Often, these discussions to address audience needs focus on how to negotiate the oppositional influences of the academy and industry. As a result, scientific and technical communication pedagogy and practice often omits race as a salient component. While contemporary theoretical and research efforts pursue humanistic-subjective perspectives, the audience analysis pedagogy has not yet extended to interrogating racial characteristics. This book fills that gap in constructing the audience from a raced perspective, by examining their language use and visual identity. Social construction theory, along with discourse and visual analysis methodologies, is used to analyze the social practices of African American women in an online community. This analysis can equip scientific and technical communication students with the tools for constructing a more complex audience. Researchers and students who are interested in online communities, African American rhetoric or the conjunction of the two, may also find this book informative.