Trades-Based Literacy: Community College Faculty’s Exploration of Disciplinary Literacy

ABSTRACT This case study investigated disciplinary literacy specific to the trades from a sociocultural perspective. Four community college faculty (diesel marine technology, mechatronics, and mathematics) participated in a disciplinary literacy learning community where they unpacked the discourse of their discipline, identified what it meant to be a member of their discipline, enhanced an assignment to address disciplinary literacy, and reflected on their experiences. We used open and axial coding and constant comparative analysis to analyze focus group interviews, faculty reflective journals, enhanced assignments, session documents, and researcher observations. The findings revealed that faculty strengthened their understanding of the role of literacy in their courses, used their discipline’s discourse to inform instruction, and implemented specific literacy practices to support students toward being insiders of the field.