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DPC956: Acquiring professional communicative expertise
Availability : |
E1 X1 X2 |
Credit Points |
4 |
Convenor(s) |
Dr Alan Jones |
Unit Web Site |
For students enrolled in the unit only - http://learn.mq.edu.au/ |
Description
The unit takes a discourse-based approach to the social construction of professional expertise. It opens up and explores the relationship of expertise per se, in a given profession or discipline, with communicative expertise. The findings of research into the discourses of healthcare and law (using discourse analysis, conversation analysis, politeness theory, and concepts like face, presupposed knowledge, and framing) are applied to the discourses of the newer professions, including the profession of manager. Students discuss how expertise is differentially defined in different institutional and organizational contexts, and examine the social, linguistic and discursive processes through which it may be acquired. The unit analyses communication, lack of communication, and miscommunication in terms of the overt or covert purposes of social actors; it investigates conflict, change, and resistance; and it explores discursive aspects of creativity and innovation in organisations.
This is practical research-based unit with assessment based on the application of concepts and insights from the research literature to students' own workplace situations. Students carry out research (an interview), analyse the results (discourse analysis), and draw up guidelines for role-specific training in communicative expertise.
Students will need to demonstrate how the content of the unit contributes to or can be incorporated into their proposed doctoral research area.