Back after a tiring three weeks, I now turn from Drucker's knowlegde worker, back to the university as a knowledge-making institution.

In an important 1996 TCQ article discussing the future of technical communication, Johndan Johnson-Eilola challenged us to “relocate value in technical communication relationships from an industrial to post-industrial relationships” (246). Arguing that Robert Reich’s notion of the worker a “symbolic analyst” should move us away from functionalist “decontextualized uses of technology” and towards investigating “broader, contextualized communication processes” (255), Johnson-Eilola proposed “five key projects that might help our students become better educated for their new roles:
1. Connect education to work
2. Question educational goals
3. Question educational processes and infrastructures
4. Build metaknowledge, network knowledge, and self reflective practices
5. Rethink interdisciplinarity”

In the eight years since this article appeared, the field has begun taking on the task of reconfiguring the professional writing curriculum along the lines suggested by Eilola. At the university where I teach (IPFW) we have connected education to work through internship programs, and by engaging with practitioners through our local STC chapter. We have engaged with local corporations by listening to their concerns, and through consultancies.


We have also taken on the task of reconfiguring our education goals, but focusing more of our classwork towards complex, symbolic-analytical tasks such as contextualized, service-learning projects, and away from functionalist preparation for “skill slots determined by industry” (12). However, we have been less successful at reengineering the educational institution itself in critical way.

One reason for that is the inertia which is part of any institution. Yet another, perhaps more fundamental reason the university is so difficult to reengineer is at the very nature of the work it does. In the public view, we are here to educate the next generation. And of course, we do spend a great deal of time working at that (One reason my Blog hasn’t had an entry for three weeks is the fact that my teaching load has demanded virtually all of my attention). But the other part of our work, the part that is most likely too get us promotion and tenure, is our research. And I think one reason the institution we call the university is so resistant to change is because of this “secret life” of the university. Major change will likely involve public debate, and to many in the university, such public debate is unlikely to be supportive of the research mission. So we go like we always have, teaching and researching in our garrets.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. “Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age.” Technical Communication Quarterly Summer 1996, Vol. 5, issue 3. 245-71.