Regulating Emotions for Social Action: Emotional Intelligence’s Role in TPC

ABSTRACT

This article describes students’ emotional intelligence (EI) development when participating in the Trans-Atlantic and Pacific Project (TAPP) in two technical and professional communication (TPC) courses. The researchers used modified grounded theory to compile the emotions used for coding students’ weekly reflections, and content analyzed how the TAPP experience affected students’ EI development. Overall, the article emphasizes the importance of supporting TPC students’ EI development in low-stakes environments since EI directly impacted their actions when collaborating.

KEYWORDS:

• Trans-atlantic and pacific project (TAPP)
• technical and professional communication (TPC)
• intercultural communication (IC)
• emotional intelligence (EI)
• social justice
• collaboration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2022.2079725.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brandi J. Fuglsby

Brandi J. Fuglsby is a PhD candidate in the Writing Studies Department at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Her research interests center around technical communication, intercultural communication, pedagogy, and social justice.

Saveena (Chakrika) Veeramoothoo

Saveena (Chakrika) Veeramoothoo is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Houston-Downtown. Her research focuses on the intersection of technical communication and migration, international and intercultural communication, collaboration, and social justice.