Abstract
This qualitative, exploratory study was designed to gain information concerning the safety attitudes and perceptions of full-time Texas Community and Technical College welding instructors. Attention was given to the frustrations and impediments instructors experience in their teaching of welding health and safety. Research was conducted through the use of personal interviews with instructors residing within a radius of 200 miles of College Station, an area which included approximately half of the community and technical college welding programs in Texas. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to reveal common themes and concerns of respondents. It was revealed that many of the frustrations encountered by respondents in their teaching of safety were the result of uncertainty as to what should comprise an acceptable safety curriculum. This uncertainty was associated with (a) a lack of standardization of the safety curriculum, (b) the isolation of instructors from each other and their administrators, and (c) a perceived lack of concern for safety instruction on the part of program administrators and program advisory board personnel. Respondents did not generally feel they were doing an adequate job in addressing the worksite hazards encountered by welders. Respondents agreed that a separate course dealing with safety in the worksite welding environment is the best way to present the subject adequately to their students, but considering their own safety training to have been inadequate, did not feel qualified to teach a comprehensive course on welding health and safety. Each respondent had an in-depth knowledge of safety hazards with respect to his own employment experience, and taught how to avoid these hazards by means of anecdotal presentations based upon accidents and incidents witnessed and experienced at the worksite. Respondents felt that their individual experiences represented only a fraction of the hazards encountered in various welding environments. Recommendations include the establishment of an association of Texas Technical and Community College welding instructors as well as the publication of a welding safety and health curriculum guide based upon a needs analysis conducted by instructors themselves.
Tammer, Anthony (1993). Safety attitudes and perceptions of welding instructors at Texas Community and Technical Colleges. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -1486809.