Improving Workplace Learning by Teaching Literature

By: Christine Angela Eastman

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Synopsis: This book investigatesthe integration of literary writing into work based or business writing. It proposes ways of how to help people withconsiderable work experience use literature to engage with the problems theyface in their work. Many people like toread for pleasure, but their skills in reading could always be improved. Thisbook makes an original contribution to the fields of education, work basedlearning and business by encouraging students to explore history, memoir,fiction, and non-fiction to model their own writing and widen their knowledgebeyond the work place and their customary reading. Inside are onsiteexperiments with fiction and non-fiction prose that show how people in theworkplace respond and grow from contact with significant literature and culturethat relates broadly to their work. As a Coaching Master'sstudent observes: "I have not been aprolific reader. It has been a weakness and a gap. I have probably read more in the last year[during the project course] than I have read in the past twenty years. So thatsays something. My ability to attend to what in a book has weight or relevancehas markedly improved. In the past I banked largely on my opinions because notbeing a prolific reader, I had to. It can be incredibly empowering to see thatthere are so many assets outside of my own mind. When something comes up now, I tend to weighit. I am more specific about how I use words. "