Social Justice and Entrepreneurial Identity: Models for the TPC Classroom

Abstract

Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) scholarship has embraced a socio-cultural turn that places attention on underrepresented groups and values contexts that house less visible forms of work, process, and organization. We extend this discussion by aligning soft skills with everyday entrepreneurial practices as another route for teaching students social and cultural awareness. We argue this pedagogical shift will help students succeed as communicators to diverse audiences given the demands of today's globally diverse workplace. Cultivating entrepreneurial expertise alongside soft skills can produce students who are more attuned to diversity and inequity, and are able to re-shape workplace contexts to be more socially just. We situate entrepreneurs as everyday rhetoricians to demonstrate opportunities to teach students fruitful ways to foster socially attuned communicative practices, thereby contributing to the development of the students' own professional identities. To this end, we present a case study highlighting everyday entrepreneurship framed by participants whose identities are attuned toward social justice. Next, we apply the entrepreneurial values demonstrated by those cases to teaching re-defined notions of “soft skills,” which are traditionally seen as a nebulous amalgam of generic rhetorical and communicative skills. We conclude with next steps and pedagogical interventions to help cultivate these entrepreneurial skills among TPC students.