Cultivating the soft skills of future construction managers through restorying construction workers’ career narratives

摘要

BACKGROUND : In the construction industry, there is an increased awareness of the importance ofsoft skills. However, no empirical studies have been conducted on the effectiveness ofpedagogical strategies in higher education to improve the soft skills of future constructionmanagers.AIM : The main aim of the research was to explore how undergraduate students of theconstruction sciences construe the identities of construction workers and whether their viewshave been changed through their retelling of and reflecting on the career stories of theseworkers. It was anticipated that the results would give an indication of whether the students’‘soft skills’ can be improved through curricular interventions.SETTING : The research was situated in a module on academic and professional literacy forstudents of Construction Economics at a large residential university in Gauteng. The moduleserves as an adjunct to a core module in Building Science.METHODS : Theoretically, the article is underpinned by Critical Multicultural Education, andmethodologically, it is based on theories of narratives and storytelling. The primary instrumentsof data gathering were students’ narrative reconstructions of the career stories of constructionworkers that were gathered through personal interviews. The student narratives were analysedusing the qualitative data analysis program AtlasTi.RESULTS : Four themes emerged from the analysis of the narratives – personal characteristics,sponsors/enablers, challenges and agency – while the analysis of students’ critical reflectionson their narratives pointed towards an understanding that career success is determined by diligence and work ethics, rather than circumstances.CONCLUSION : An important change that occurred in students’ perceptions aboutconstruction workers is a realisation that successful workers are driven by an internallocus of control and are not derailed by adverse circumstances. The changed attitudes gobeyond tolerance and reduced stereotyping. It is recommended that in order to deliverwell-rounded graduates to the construction industry, multiple opportunities should becreated in the curricula for modules focused on the acquisition of ‘hard’ as well as ‘soft’skills.