Due to the rarity of female pilots, aviation communication is typically conducted in a single-gender environment. The role of gender in interactions during inflight emergencies has not yet been adequately explored. This single case analysis uses a qualitative approach based on conversation analytic transcripts to investigate how gender may be relevant either explicitly or implicitly in radio transmissions between flight crew and Air Traffic Control (ATC) personnel, as well as internal ATC phone interactions as participants work to handle an inflight emergency. This incident involved a female pilot and a male copilot, thus providing a naturally occurring rare event to explore the potential relevance of gender. The analysis shows that explicit references to gender are limited to occasional asymmetrical use of gendered address terms and gendered pronouns. Participants also used interactional formulations that-while not explicitly gendered-have been associated in previous research with gender differences in interaction, for example, the use of indirect forms of requests or complaints, actions that imply inferences about the emotional state of participants, or possible confusion over the identity of the pilot given the transitions between male and female sounding voices speaking on behalf of the plane. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for how gender differences can impact aviation communication during emergency incidents.
Transformative dialogue and mediation (TD/M) is an approach to conflict resolution used in mediation and inter-group dialogues about social justice and race, political polarization, and ethnopolitical conflict. TD/M practitioners believe their approach supports the agency of participants and helps them interact with greater confidence, self-awareness, and understanding of the perspectives of others. However, previous research on TD/M has not yet addressed how it achieves those outcomes. This pilot study works to fill that gap by investigating how reflection, the most commonly used TD/M technique, is utilized in a facilitated meeting of the steering committee of a non-profit organization. We conduct a qualitative sequential analysis of a video-recorded interaction to investigate how TD/M reflection is done. We show how the TD/M facilitator of the meeting reflects participants’ statements with the techniques of mirroring, substituting, and omitting and how the participants respond to those reflections with agreement or repair. The results of the analysis are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding how TD/M facilitation works.
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