155
During the observations of lessons, there were a limited number of instances in which the pedagogy a lecturer was using would develop would achieve the outcomes craftsmanship, business-like attitudes, or wider skills for growth. The vocational outcome of craftsmanship appeared in the first lesson on clutch fitting. There were, nonetheless, some instances in which lecturers, as part of their pedagogy, involved a learner in making decisions that dealt with the social elements of the job, which constitute an aspect of business-like attitudes. The section which follows illustrates these.
156 Lecturer asks one student to remove bolt for diff oil.
Lecturer: Put in a finger in the hole.
Student: … there is some oil.
Lecturer: Good. Now close the hole…. put back the bolt. There is enough diff oil.
Lecturer: Look, we don’t want a customer to come back after 2 weeks and say his diff is having a problem because there is no diff oil, yet the car is from service.
Lecturer: Always a customer must be happy to come to us.
Student: [interjects]…. because after all, we will charge him nicely.
Lecturer: [to a student putting back the nuts from the petrol filter]
Hey, use your hand first when putting the nuts…. Before fastening with a spanner.
Lecturer uses a hammer to hit the rear drum to check brake shoes. He then shows students how to scoop off cover and they continue.
Student: When is lunch?
Lecturer: Does it mean the gauge is low?
Student: It is already showing red, sir.
Lecturer now uses a screw driver to adjust the shoes in each wheel.
Another student: Let’s go for lunch.
Lecturer: Let’s say this is a customer’s car… and the customer is paying. Will you tell him you are going for lunch? Will he ever come back?
As he says this the owner of the car who is sitting some four metres away smiles.
In this extract, the lecturer underscored the importance of doing all the procedural checks on the customer’s car when it was serviced so that the customer would not be dissatisfied.
He highlighted the importance of the customer to the work of the automotive mechanic, and the student added that, after all, the customer would be given a nice bill. When a student complained about being hungry around lunch time, the lecturer used the opportunity to emphasize that when a customer is waiting it is important to forgo some of your comforts and put the customer’s interests first. These values are important in the workplace, and are observed when seeking to meet and exceed customer expectations.
In the extract which follows, the lecturer demonstrated how to handle new parts to be installed in a car and how to communicate with the customer. A group of five students were selected (according to a rotational system) to service a car. The car was a Honda Civic import model.
157
Transcription of interview
Lecturer number: MITC2 Date: 27 July 2015
Lecturer positions car on pit where oil drainage and under chassis observations are done.
Informs students what work will be done on the car as per customer’s request. The work to be done will be servicing, but will not involve brakes. The owner also wants his ball joints to be replaced.
Lecturer: First, let us check the service parts if they match those in the car. Make sure your hands are clean when you hold the new parts. If they are wrong the owner cannot take them back if they are dirty. [Calls a student]: please open the bonnet…. Now [calls another student] ... take this new oil filter and check if it is the same as the one in the car.
Student: Yes, sir, it is the same.
Lecturer asks students in turns to check if the air filter, petrol filter and plugs are the same, and they each report the parts are correct, except that there is a problem with the air filter, it looks different, and the teacher confirms it will not be able to fit.
The lecturer calls the customer on the phone, and the customer says they can leave out the air filter and he is still going to scout in many different places for it [the car is an import and import parts are not easily available in the country.
Lecturer comments: This car engine is too dirty. We will have to wash it at the end.
Student: Yes... and look there are mouse droppings all over the engine… [all laugh.] I think it comes from one of the mice infested slums in Manzini.
Teacher instructs one student to take the old air filter out, and to use an air compressor to blow it out.
Student: It’s a bit cleaner, and maybe he can use it for a while he looks for the correct one.
What is noted here is that the lecturer tried to instil as part of practice that new car parts brought by a customer should be kept clean in case they need to be exchanged. He also demonstrated that it is standard business practice to note and, where possible, attend to other issues noted with the customer’s car, such as washing the car engine after the service if it is dirty.
In the following extract, a timing belt snapped while being put back on an engine that had been overhauled and the lecturer instructs a student to tell the customer:
Transcription of interview
Lecturer number: MITC2 Date: 22 October 2015 Lecturer then picks the sprocket for timing belt, and asks one trainee to fit it.
158 [As trainee does so, the sprocket falls down].
Lecturer: I wonder what they will do at work about your carelessness.
One trainee: No one will fire you if you work under a tree [smiles knowingly].
Lecturer asks the trainees to fit the timing belt and to tension it as appropriate.
As one trainee tensions the timing belt, it snaps.
[Everyone is quiet. Lecturer appears disturbed but does not say anything].
Lecturer: [To one trainee] Take my phone (hands him cell phone). See this number…call the car owner and tell him the timing belt has just snapped… also tell him he did not bring the oil filter.
Trainee calls.
Trainee: We have been putting together your engine here at MITC… but the timing belt has just been torn.
[Reaction of trainee suggests the person on the other side is unhappy about this.]
Trainee: Sir, the belt was too old, so when we were applying the correct tension it tore away………you will need to come to pick the torn one to show them a specimen in the spares shop…so that you will also buy the oil filter…we need a new oil filter now.
Trainee returns and says the owner was first reluctant to be told to buy a timing belt.
One trainee: Uyafelela [maybe he is a miser]. [laughter].
The ability to communicate and converse with a customer is one requirement of business practice that is an aspect of the vocational outcome of business-like attitudes. The lecturer seized an opportunity to ask one trainee to report the torn timing belt, and in doing so allowed the trainee to gain hands on experience in conversing with a customer in a difficult situation. Other students were watching and learning. There was some tact involved in the lecturer’s choice of who to assign this task, as the lecturer did not ask the same student who had broken the timing belt to talk to the customer.
Sometimes a lecturer noted behaviours by students that would not be appropriate in a business environment:
159
Transcription of interview
Lecturer number: MITC2 Date: 22 October 2015 Lecturer: [to one trainee] You are very lazy. Why are you sitting down when we are all working? [as trainee stands up.]
The lecturer saw it necessary to eliminate unacceptable habits such as relaxing when it was work time and there was a customer’s car to attend to, as this did not fit in with the vocational outcome of business-like attitudes.