A Study of Working Intelligence

Yolanda Majors

This study proposes to continue a line of research that closely examines the skilled practices of working participants within a high-tech, multifaceted, urban African American hair salon and spa. I look to consider how cultural funds of knowledge correspond with domain specific skills to achieve work-task related goals. My central concern is how speakers of African American English (AAE) grapple with work related tasks by making use of related knowledge, skills and culturally situated norms for talk. I intend to identify the skilled, manual performances on multiple tasks within one workplace and their systematic characteristics as they contribute to teaching and learning within that context. I will analyze audio and videotapes, field notes, focus group interviews and transcripts of recorded activity. Analysis will focus on task related skills, interaction patterns, the role and structure of discourse, and the nature of task related problem solving. Based on the questions addressed in this study, I will then be able to take this knowledge and inform curriculum design.

About Yolanda Majors

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