In the professional formation of pharmacists, participation in real-life professional practice occurs mostly in pre-registration training, in the year after completion of the four-year undergraduate MPharm course. As such, development of professional identity and practice are likely to happen predominantly in the pre-registration year. The study is conducted against a background of a sparsity of knowledge about professional formation in pharmacy, particularly in the pre-registration year. The aim of this study is to investigate the professional formation of pharmacy graduates in the pre-registration year. The research questions address what professional practice the graduate engages in during the pre-registration year, how they perceive their own identity and the reasons for this. Understanding professional formation requires a focus on the interplay between agency and structure. As such, Bourdieu's conceptual tools are deployed to explore individual agency and relationships between key players, in a process named becoming a pharmacist. This process is further conceptualised as achieving a feel for the game in which recognising and repositioning in regard to hysteresis is central to success. Via this conceptualisation, Bourdieu's thinking tools are used to describe and understand becoming a pharmacist, shaping the study through their use to inform data collection, analysis and interpretation. Four community pharmacy pre-registration trainees working in the north-west of England were recruited to take part. A case study methodology was chosen to retain the holistic characteristics of real-life events, with qualitative methods used to collect data. Portraiture was chosen as a method of presenting and describing the study's findings. Interview transcripts, observational data, self-selected records from trainee portfolios and researcher field notes were used to construct the portraits. Each portrait was subjected to a critical analysis to understand each trainee's unique experience using the lens of Bourdieu's conceptual thinking tools. A cross portrait analysis was then additionally carried out using key theories of identity and professional practice as well as Bourdieu's conceptual tools. Key findings included that identity and practice were strongly influenced by cultural capital and the existence of a dyadic relationship with the pharmacist tutor. Legal and corporate restrictions on practice constrained the development of professional expertise, which contributed to a period of acute stress experienced immediately upon qualification. The identification of practices of assertion and practices of deference as a way to describe trainee practice and identity was proposed and explored. Conclusions include that practices of assertion and deference can be useful in allowing researchers to unpack the bundles of influences on identity and practice. Through its findings, the study therefore makes a contribution to what is known about professional formation in pharmacy but also more broadly through the use of Bourdieu's conceptual tools to reveal complex relationships between structure and agency.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-175).

Three projects are represented in this portfolio. Two involve practical work in the National Health Service and the higher education sector and one is a conceptual study of reflection in learning and professional development. All of the projects had the aim of developing clarity and effectiveness in particular areas of education - professional development, training, teaching and learning. The NHS project on professional development in health promotion (UK Professional Development Project in Health Promotion) aimed to improve the ability of those in non-specialist health promotion posts (e.g. nurses and teachers) to educate for health. Contributions of the work towards knowledge are in its concerns for ensuring that short courses have a significant impact on participants particularly through the use of an outcomes-based approach and planned reflective activities. The second project concerned the implementation of a credit framework in Welsh higher education. The development of a credit framework increases access to and flexibility within higher education by providing a generally accepted currency for learning. The main contributions of this work are in the development of specifications for this currency - guidance for writing learning outcomes and level descriptors. Reflection plays an important role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of learning and the development of reflective capacities is central to the level of learning expected of graduates. The third project is a conceptual investigation of reflection, its interpretation in theoretical, professional and educational contexts and a consideration of how reflection is related to deep and effective learning. This involves the development of a new model of learning and the representation of learning both to elucidate reflection and to find better ways of using it to support the quality of learning at higher levels. There is substantial section on practical activities that encourage reflection in learning, including journal writing. While there are various interests in reflection, there have been few attempts to synthesise the ideas emanating from different disciplines and to relate them to current thinking about learning. The portfolio itself consists of the unpublished papers of the first two projects and an overview document that accompanies the portfolio describes the portfolio in the context of their contribution towards purpose, clarity and effectiveness in training, teaching and learning.

The author’s previous research into the learning experiences of mature, workingclass students undertaking a professionally endorsed qualification in Community Education, was overly negative in its view of the students whilst underplaying the role of curriculum in their learning. Reinterpreting their undergraduate experience more positively leads to thinking about how their educational needs could be reconciled with the programme’s aim to produce critically competent graduates. Four principles derived from the Habermasian concept of communicative action can inform thinking about an appropriate pedagogical approach. The first directs attention to the acts of reciprocity that underpin learning. The second focuses attention on how knowledge can be constructed through redeeming claims. The third signals the necessity of safeguarding participation and protecting rationality in argumentation, and the fourth points to the idea of competence as a constructive achievement. Taken together, the four principles express the ideal of a discursive pedagogy in which teachers and students socially construct knowledge appropriate to the subject area. Because it involves active participation based on a commitment to open communication and argumentative reasoning, approximating the ideal conditions of a discursive pedagogy could address the student’s learning needs whilst meeting the programme’s aim. Anticipating and considering the likely issues and challenges involved in attempts to realise these idealised conditions suggests ways in which a discursive pedagogy could be given practical form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [155]-158).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Idaho, March 8, 2006. / Major professor: James A. Gregson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-106). Also available online in PDF format.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2009. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 305 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.