Latinx Youths' Advanced Communication Practices in Professional Work Spaces

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Latinx Youth at Work: Negotiating Identity, Agency, and Communication in Professional, Community, and Academic Spaces

Abstract

Career-oriented work in the information age and knowledge economy requires advanced abilities in communication and literacy (Brandt, 2005; Luke, 2004). While recent curricular standards attempt to address this reality, and innovations in youth career preparation are underway (e.g. Lindstrom et al, 2013), language minoritized (LM) Latinx youth are conceptually and operationally excluded from these efforts in important ways.

The goal of this qualitative inquiry is to contribute an understanding of Latinx youths’ advanced communication practices in response to the communication demands of an underexplored context: professional workplaces. Specifically, we focus on the experiences of five Latinx youth to answer the questions: (1) How and when do young people engage in advanced communication practices as they prepare for, engage in, and report on their responsibilities in the workplace? (2) What is the relationship between these communication practices and the types of work in which young people engage? Answering these questions will begin to establish a literature on the unique preparation and needs of Latinx youth for the communication demands of professional workplaces.

Data were drawn from experiences of five Latinx youth as they worked in professional work study sites arranged by their high school, a private school exclusively enrolling youth from low-income families. Work sites included the national headquarters of a large corporation, a family-owned communications firm, the national headquarters and processing plant of a specialty food company, and an international trade organization. Our notions of “advanced communication practices” drew partly from literatures on “communicative competence” (Hymes, 1972; Canale & Swain, 1980) in applied linguistics and ethnography of communication, and partly from themes developed during inductive analyses of fieldnotes, audio recordings, and work study journals. Finally, we examined the relationship between instances of each kind of competence and the kind of work being engaged by youth at the time.

Findings revealed that youth communication practices are mediated by several factors: the nature of the work activity, framing of work and forms of support from the supervisor, material resources engaged while working, and prior skills and practices developed at home and school. We present examples of young people’s workplace communication practices as they leverage and expand on their communication resources in response to new communication demands.

This study contributes to understandings of the relationship between workplace communication demands and the affordances of youths’ community and school-based communication repertoires. Moreover, it identifies potential factors in supporting the transfer of communication skills and development of new advanced practices as well. We conclude with implications for the classroom instruction and workplace mentoring of Latinx youth. We note implications for scholarship on Latinx youth communication practices within and beyond the workplace. Specific to youth in professional workplaces, we conclude with questions about the traditional communication routines and norms in professional settings, and the degree to which they are necessary and/or effective for youth workers’ successful work performance and development of communication and workplace skills.

Authors

• Kerry A. Enright, University of California - Davis

• Alicia Bencomo Garcia, University of California - Davis

• Julia Houk, University of California - Davis

• Yadira Lopez, University of California - Davis

• Dominic Garcia, University of California - Davis