Reclaiming professional identity through postgraduate professional development: Career practitioners reclaiming their professional selves

Careers advisers in the UK have experienced significant change and upheaval within their professional practice. This research explores the role of postgraduate level professional development in contributing to professional identity. The research utilises a case study approach and adopts multiple tools to provide an in-depth examination of practitioners’ perceptions of themselves as professionals within their lived world experience. It presents a group of practitioners struggling to define themselves as professionals due to changing occupational nomenclature resulting from shifting government policy. Postgraduate professional development generated a perceived enhancement in professional identity through exposure to theory, policy and opportunities for reflection, thus contributing to more confident and empowered practitioners. Engagement with study facilitated development of confident, empowered practitioners with a strengthened sense of professional self

Professional identity development: learning and journeying together

Background: Pharmacy students start to develop their professional values through engagement with the course, practice exposure, staff and fellow students. Group working is an element of pedagogy which draws on the social aspects of learning to facilitate knowledge and skills development, but its potential role in facilitating professional identity formation has as yet been under researched. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the potential of mutual learning through group work to contribute not only to academic knowledge and understanding, but also to the development of students’ professional values and selves. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 home and international first year undergraduate pharmacy students in a UK School of Pharmacy, to explore their experiences of interacting for learning with other students on the course. Findings: Thematic analysis of the interview data highlighted four main benefits of mutual learning, which are that it: promotes friendly interactions; aids learning about the subject and the profession; opens the mind through different opinions and ways of thinking; and enables learning about other people. Through working together students developed their communication skills and confidence; reflectively considered their own stance in the light of others’ experiences and healthcare perspectives; and started to gain a wider worldview, potentially informing their future interactions with patients and colleagues. Some difficulties arose when group interactions functioned less well. Conclusions: Opportunity for collaboration and exchange can positively influence development of students’ professional outlook and values. However, careful management of group working is required, in order to create a mutually supportive environment wherein students feel able to interact, share and develop together

A careers adviser? so what do you do exactly?

This paper aims to explore and examine how professional identity is defined within career guidance in England in the wake of ongoing change. It considers the components and the factors that contribute to the formation of professional identity, and the relationship with postgraduate continuing professional development (CPD). The study draws on the perceptions of a group of England-based practitioners broadly representing the sector, but bounded by one common factor; they have all undertaken a postgraduate qualification focusing on CPD within a guidance related discipline

Students' perceptual change of professional ethics after engaging in work-integrated learning

When students undertake work placements, they become immersed in a relevant community of practice, where they are required to meet the social demands to perform within the norms of this community. These expected norms are shaped by several community aspects, such as cultural beliefs, ethical considerations, and moral positions. The workplace experiences are also where students start to shape and understand their own identity as a professional and their professional morality and ethics. With increasing industry demands for work-ready graduates (Archer & Davison, 2008; Lomax-Smith, Watson, & Webster, 2011), there needs to be consideration that ‘work-readiness’ includes professional identity and professional ethics. Identity development is strongly related to how a student engages with professional work-life (Reid, Dahlgren, Peticz, & Dahlgren, 2008). Perhaps not surprising then that increasingly values education, enhancing ethical knowledge and conduct, and professional identity development are being seen as important facets of student development (Campbell & Zegwaard, 2011a; Herkert, 2000; Keown, Parker, & Tiakiwai, 2005; Trede, Macklin, & Bridges, 2011). However, students engaged in undergraduate studies, tend to hold narrow conceptualisations of professionalism (Grace & Trede, 2011). The literature argues that to have effective development of professional ethical awareness and practice, then explicit emphasis must be placed in the curriculum on the learning and development of professional identity and professional ethics (Campbell & Zegwaard, 2011b; Trede, 2012)

Librarians as Teachers: A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity

This study explores the development of ???teacher identity??? among academic librarians through a series of semi-structured interviews. Drawing both on the idea of teacher identity from the literature of teacher education and on existing studies of professional stereotypes and professional identity development among academic librarians, this study explores the degree to which academic librarians think of themselves as teachers, the ways in which teaching has become a feature of their professional identity, and the factors that may influence academic librarians to adopt a ???teacher identity??? as part of their personal understandings of their role on campus.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Crossing borders: new teachers co-constructing professional identity in performative times

This paper draws on a range of theoretical perspectives on the construction of new teachers’ professional identity. It focuses particularly on the impact of the development in many national education systems of a performative culture of the management and regulation of teachers’ work. Whilst the role of interactions with professional colleagues and school managers in the performative school has been extensively researched, less attention has been paid to new teachers’ interactions with students. This paper highlights the need for further research focusing on the process of identity co-construction with students. A key theoretical concept employed is that of liminality, the space within which identities are in transition as teachers adjust to the culture of a new professional workplace, and the nature of the engagement of new teachers, or teachers who change schools, with students. The authors argue that an investigation into the processes of this co-construction of identity offers scope for new insights into the extent to which teachers might construct either a teacher identity at odds with their personal and professional values, or a more ‘authentic’ identity that counters performative discourses. These insights will in turn add to our understanding of the complex range of factors impacting on teacher resilience and motivation

Mentoring matters: findings from the APS College of Health Psychologists Survey

Mentoring has increased in popularity and perceived impact over the past few decades—across academic and professional contexts, however less is known about the benefits within the discipline of psychology (Canter, Kessler, Odar, Aylward & Roberts, 2011; Jackson et al., 2015). Mentoring is defined as ‘a form of professional socialization whereby a more experienced individual acts as a guide, role model, teacher, and patron of a less experienced protégé…to further develop and refine the protégé’s skills, abilities, and understanding” (pp.45; Moore & Amey, 1988), and typically focusses on earlier career professionals—from a developmental approach and based on the mentor-mentee relationship (Chaney, 2014). Mentoring can provide vast positive outcomes for both mentees (e..g,, retention and recruitment; development of career and professional identity) and mentors (e.g., increased knowledge and support, encouragement, recognition; prevention of burnout, a sense of ‘giving back’; Allen, Lentz & Day, 2006; Eby, Allen, Evans, Ng, & Dubois, 2008; Jackson et al., 2015; Nick et al., 2012; Ragins & Scandura, 1999; Shiry, 2006). Thus, mentoring warrants further development and evaluation within the psychology profession in Australia as a means to enhance professional membership, development and identity—across general and endorsed psychology areas and may have particular benefits for smaller sub-specialties (e.g., health psychology) to support needed workforce development and maintenance

Identity development in career-changing beginning teachers : a qualitative study of professional scientists becoming school teachers

This qualitative study provides a critical case to analyse the identity development of professionals who already have a strong sense of identity as scientists and have decided to relinquish their professional careers to become teachers. The study followed a group of professionals who undertook a one-year teacher education course and were assigned to secondary and middle-years schools on graduation. Their experiences were examined through the lens of self-determination theory, which posits that autonomy, confidence and relationships are important in achieving job satisfaction. The findings indicated that those teachers who were able to achieve this sense of autonomy and confidence, and had established strong relationships with colleagues generated a positive professional identity as a teacher. The failure to establish supportive relationships was a decisive event that challenged their capacity to develop a strong sense of identity as a teacher

Music teacher practice and identity in professional development partnerships

Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal practical knowledge," Connelly and Clandinin discovered that teaching practice questions and teacher identity questions were closely linked. They argue that identity is not a fixed entity, but is "storied." In this paper, the author re-presents the identity stories of pre-service music teachers as they were shaped by experience inside professional development partnerships. Her aim is to use the stories to illuminate and inform people's present understanding of the social construction of music teacher identity, and to suggest how music teacher identities may be shaped differently inside professional development partnerships than they are shaped in traditional music teacher preparation. Obviously, not all of the narratives she has collected can be re-presented here. Methodologically, she has selected stores that exemplify recurring phenomena, but she has refrained from forming composite characters, settings, or plot lines. In selecting and interpreting the stories, she has heeded Britzman's caution that the narrative of lived experience and the lived experience itself "can never be synonymous.