This thesis is about the process of becoming, or not becoming, a primary school mathematics teacher. The aim is to understand and describe the professional identity development of novice primary school mathematics teachers from the perspective of the novice teachers themselves. The study is a case study with an ethnographic direction where seven novice teachers have been followed from their graduation and two years onwards. The ethnographic direction has been used to make visible the whole process of identity development, both the individual and the social part. The empirical material in the study consists of self-recordings made by the respondents, observations and interviews. The empirical material is analysed in two different but co-operating ways. First a conceptual framework was developed and used as a lens. Second, methods inspired by grounded theory are used. The purpose of using them both is to retain the perspective of the respondents as far as possible. At the time of graduation the respondents are members in a community of reform mathematics teaching and they want to reform mathematics teaching in schools. In their visions they strive away from their own experiences of mathematics in school and practice periods. Four cases are presented closely in the thesis as they show four various routes into, and out of, the teaching profession. These four cases make visible that the respondents’ patterns of participation regarding teaching mathematics changes when they become members in new communities of practice with mathematics teaching as part of the shared repertoire. But, the four cases also make visible that the existence of such communities of practice seems to be rare and that the respondents’ different working conditions limit their possibilities of becoming members in those that exist. During the time span of this study, the respondents hardly receive any feedback for their performance as mathematics teachers. Even if they teach mathematics they don´t teach it as they would like to and they don´t think of themselves as mathematics teachers. Two years after graduation none of the respondents has developed a professional identity as primary school mathematics teacher. A primary school teacher in Sweden is a teacher of many subjects but they are the first teachers to teach our school children mathematics. For the respondents to develop a sense of themselves as a kind of primary school mathematics teacher, mathematics teaching has to become part of their teacher identities. For this to become possible, mathematics must become a part of their image of a primary school teacher as an image of a primary school mathematics teacher. Furthermore memberships in communities of practice with mathematics in the shared repertoire must be accessible, both during teacher education and after graduation. Then professional identity development as a primary school teacher would include becoming and being a teacher of mathematics.

Η παρούσα εργασία πραγματεύεται το ζήτημα της διαμόρφωσης της επαγγελματικής ταυτότητας των τελειόφοιτων σπουδαστών του Π.Τ.Δ.Ε. και των εκπαιδευτικών, εκκινώντας από τον επαγγελματισμό που διέπει κάθε επαγγελματικό χώρο. Ειδικότερα, αναλύονται οι παράγοντες εκείνοι, που διαμορφώνουν και επηρεάζουν την επαγγελματική ταυτότητα και εν συνεχεία μέσα από την εμπειρική μελέτη προσπαθούμε να καταγράψουμε τις απόψεις των φοιτητών και των εκπαιδευτικών επί του θέματος. Στο θεωρητικό μέρος γίνεται εκτενής αναφορά στην έννοια του επαγγελματισμού, πάνω στην οποία στηρίζεται το οικοδόμημα των επαγγελματικών ταυτοτήτων. Στην εμπειρική μελέτη, κυρίαρχο ζητούμενο είναι αφενός η διερεύνηση της θέσης των ερωτώμενων πάνω στις έννοιες επαγγελματισμός και επαγγελματική ταυτότητα, αλλά και η αναζήτηση των απόψεών τους στο ερώτημα αν η διαμόρφωση της επαγγελματικής ταυτότητας συντελείται καθ' όλη την επαγγελματική πορεία του εκπαιδευτικού ή αφορά μόνον σε ένα χρονικό διάστημα της καριέρας του. / In this work we discuss the issue of the construction of the professional identity and the concept of professionalism of the student teachers' identities, who study at the Department of Primary Education (University of Patras), and of the teachers, starting from the profissionalism which spans every professional area. Specifically, we analyze those factors that construct adn affect the professional identity and then, using empirical study, we attempt to explore students' and teachers' views. In the theoretical part, we extensively examine the notion of professionalism, in which professional identity is based. In the research part of the thesis, we seek to reveal about the notions of the professionalism and professional identity; moreover, we seek to answer the question if the formation of the professional identity takes place during the whole career or refers to only a period of this career.

Working on teams with professionals from other fields is often challenging. Researchers from the fields of Management and Writing Studies have frequently emphasized the tension and conflict experienced in such inter-professional, or cross-functional, teams. Whether studying engineering project teams, groups of medical professionals, or business teams, researchers have found that inter-professional work is often complicated by misunderstanding and miscommunication due to problems associated with inter-group professional identity. This interdisciplinary research draws from the fields of Management and Writing Studies in the exploration of a modern, inter-professional proposal writing team working at a commercial enterprise. A modified version of Grounded Theory, coupled with Rhetorical Genre Studies analysis, serves as a methodological framework for the study. The analytical framework is provided by the combination of Rhetorical Genre Studies, a model of successful team interactions, borrowed from Management Studies, and an expanded version of Wenger’s conceptualization of multiple communities of practice (CoPs). The research reveals the complexity of inter-professional team work. Professional identity of the team’s member is also presented as more complicated than previously anticipated. The study indicates that the team has been heavily influenced by a former, or an antecedent, CoP to which some of the team members belong. The genre and leadership preferences of the antecedent CoP are shown to moderate much of the predicted tension and conflict in the work of the team. The interdisciplinary study reveals the effects of antecedent CoPs and professional identity of the team members on the inter-professional team dynamics. Both researchers and practitioners may benefit from the findings of the study and a broader interdisciplinary approach used to investigate and interpret the dynamics of inter-professional teams.

Abstract Författare: Liselott Holst Titel: Studie- och yrkesvägledares yrkesidentiteter- En intervjustudie med några verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare på grund- och gymnasieskolan Masteruppsats: 91 – 120 hp Handledare: Niklas Gustafson Pedagogiska Institutionen   Bakgrunden till denna uppsats är att det riktats en hel del kritik mot skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning av bl.a. Skolverket. Ur dessa rapporter framkom bl.a. kritik mot att det idag finns stora skillnader i kvalitet mellan olika kommuner och olika skolor när det gäller skolornas studie- och yrkesvägledning. En förklaring till dessa kvalitetsskillnader är att det enligt skollagen finns en stor frihet för den enskilda skolan att själv bestämma över innehållet och organiseringen av skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning. Tydligare riktlinjer för hur skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning ska bedrivas har därför framförts. Uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur några verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare inom grund- och gymnasieskolan talar om sig själva och sitt yrke i relation till den egna arbetsplatsen. Min teoretiska utgångspunkt är diskursanalys och social jämförelseteori och jag har använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer med hjälp av en intervjuguide. Ur resultatet av det empiriska materialet har jag kunnat identifiera en diskursordning för vägledare på grund- och gymnasieskolan. Inom denna diskursordning finns olika åsikter bland respondenterna i studien bl.a. när det gäller arbetsuppgifter som ligger utanför vägledarens egentliga yrkeskompetens. Diskursen om ”mångsyssleri” är den mest framträdande diskursen i denna studie. Ett annat intressant resultat är att personligheten är viktigare än yrkesgrupp när det gällde frågor om samarbete och känsla av tillhörighet med andra yrkesgrupper på den egna arbetsplatsen. I intervjuerna framkom också att det finns ett önskemål bland några av respondenterna om ökad reglering och tydligare riktlinjer för skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning medan andra värdesätter ett större handlingsutrymme för den egna verksamheten. / Author : Liselott Holst Title: professional identities of guidance counselors - A interviewstudy with some active guidance counselors in elementary and secondary school Master Thesis : 91 - 120 hp Supervisor: Niklas Gustafson Department of Education The purpose of this thesis is to study how some active guidance counselors in elementary and secondary school are talking about themselves and their profession in relation to their own workplace. My theoretical starting point is discourse analysis and social comparison theory, and I have used qualitative interviews using an interview guide. From the result of the empirical material I have been able to identify a discourse scheme for counselors in elementary and secondary school. Within this order of discourse are different opinions among the respondents in the study, including when it comes to tasks that are outside the counselors' actual professional competence. The discourse of "versatile artist" is the most prominent discourse in this study. Another interesting result is that personality is more important than profession when it came to matters of cooperation and sense of belonging with other professionals in their workplace. The interviews also revealed that there is a desire among some respondents about increased regulation and clearer guidelines for school guidance and counseling, while others value the greater latitude for their own operations.

Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskor verksamma inom psykiatrisk vård upplever svårigheter med att artikulera sin yrkesidentitet. Bakgrunden beskriver sjuksköterskans roll inom psykiatrisk vård ur ett historiskt samt nutida perspektiv. Bakgrunden visar att sjuksköterskor tenderar att lämna den psykiatriska vården när de upplever att deras kompetens inte tas tillvara, vilket i förlängningen även drabbar patienterna. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva hur sjuksköterskor yrkesverksamma inom psykiatrisk vård uppfattar sin yrkesidentitet Metod: Fem sjuksköterskor intervjuades med hjälp av ostrukturerade intervjuer. Kvalitativ design användes i studien. Resultat: Resultatet presenteras i temat en komplex yrkesidentitet samt tre kategorier: att vårda unika människor, att vara arbetsledare och den egna utvecklingen samt åtta underkategorier Diskussion: Resultatet diskuteras utifrån Imogene Kings begrepp roll, organisationer, auktoritet, makt, status och stress, samt utifrån genusteoretiskt perspektiv. / Background:Nurses working in psychiatric care experience difficulty in articulating their professional identity. The background describes the role of the nurse in psychiatric care from a historical and contemporary perspective. The background shows that nurses tend to leave the psychiatric care when they feel their skills are not utilized, which in turn also affects the patients. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe how nurses working in psychiatric care understand their professional identity Methods: Five nurses where interviewed with the help of unstructured interviews. A qualitative design was used for the study. Result: The results are presented in the theme a complex professional identity and the three categories: nurturing unique people, to be supervisors and their own development as well as eight subcategories Discussions: The results are discussed from Imogene King's conceptual role, organizations, authority, power, status and stress, and on the basis of gender theory perspective.

This thesis aims to take a step or two towards a theoretical model of where teacher education ‘stands’ as a social practice, a career, a discipline, and a profession. It does this through the specific lens of ‘professional identity’, a concept often referred to in the teaching and teacher education literature but one that is also often ill-defined and seldom made the empirical focus of the studies reported. Taking as its starting point a definition of professional identity as ‘the valued professional self’, the thesis recounts the findings of a phenomenological study of the professional self-image and identities of nine preservice teacher educators from six different institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research involved a grounded analysis of the transcripts of some 39 extended interviews with the teacher educators, conducted over a five-year period. The period during which the thesis was written has been one of considerable educational change in New Zealand, and one little short of an upheaval in relation to the institutional structuring of teacher education nation-wide. During the period of the study colleges of education with a century and a half of history as independent, stand-alone and specialist institutions, have gone through a complex process of merging with their local universities, while neo-liberal reforms of all tertiary institutions have placed particular strains and constraints on the pedagogical structures and processes that are typically implemented in teacher education programmes. Being on the brink of a new era in teacher education has thus brought teacher educators’ identity - their place in the educational world and what it is that they and their field fundamentally ‘stand for’ - both into relief, and for some, into question. The teacher educators in the study followed a path into teacher education typical in New Zealand but perhaps increasingly untypical in many other countries - from practitioner to academic - and in one sense it is an account of how they severally and collectively have come to terms with their own identities as professionals during that journey and at a time of considerable institutional turmoil. But the research also attempts to get beyond their individual stories to address broader issues of how one might best ‘get at’ a professional identity in the first place, as a matter of interview analysis and method, whether or not there are some distinctive but common elements that might distinguish the professional identity of the particular group we call teacher educators, and if there are, then what those distinctive characteristics might be. The research studied the teacher educators’ professional identities through several related lenses or perspectives that taken together might be seen as constituting or covering the key facets of the phenomenon we call a professional identity. It interrogates their storied accounts of how and why they became teacher educators: their professional motivations, goals and career histories. It also examines through a snapshot in time what they saw as the occupational scope of their jobs and the various roles they undertook, and the relative emphasis or value priority given by individuals to each job or role. Through a third lens, it describes and theorises the particular knowledge base(s), pedagogies and professional expertise they felt they needed to do the job effectively, and what they saw as teacher educators’ distinctive ‘expertise’. Using metaphor analysis, it also explores the emotionalities associated with the various personae they found themselves ‘being’ as teacher educators - the highs and things that gave them ‘heart’, along with the tensions, incongruities and dilemmas associated with ‘being’ teacher educators. A final perspective explores their sense of collective identity as a professional community and the various other professional groups with whom they felt more, or less, collective affinity. The thesis concludes by proposing a conceptual model of teacher educators’ professional identity as an identity that overlaps with that of teachers in schools as well as with that of academics in other fields, but which is nevertheless distinguishable from both these. In particular, it is simultaneously more multifaceted in scope than the former and more performative in nature than the latter. The study suggests that teacher educators’ professional identity may be particularly characterised by the comprehensiveness of its specialist expertise, by a strong sense of ethical commitment and other-centredness, by a conception of teacher education as the embodied enactment of its own knowledge-base and expertise, and, ultimately, by an abiding ambivalence about teacher educators’ and teacher education’s place in the world - the professional discomfort that characterises working across ‘the spaces in between’.

This study examines perceptions of 12 full-time non-tenure track faculty members about their professional and academic selves in a research-intensive university. A phenomenological approach is used to gain insight into the complexities of the experience of being a full-time faculty member, off the tenure-track, whose primary responsibility is teaching within a research-intensive institution. The notion of tenurestream as the only desired path to being an academic is challenged by these faculty members’ understanding of their identities. This researcher considers how professional identities may be understood and suggests that the meanings and values these faculty members attach to their professional roles may be embedded in their perceptions of how their role fits within the department. Throughout this qualitative inquiry, the perspectives of these faculty members are positioned as a primary source of data about the experience of being a full-time non-tenure track faculty member. By using a phenomenological approach and taking a constructivist perspective this researcher finds that extant theories that view this population through a deficit model are inaccurate. Additionally, essentialist and homogenizing descriptions of this population are also found to be insufficient. A qualitative analysis suggests the viability of an alternative description of this population, one which reflects the nuanced view of professional identity these participants expressed. Based on structural categories adapted from Martin’s (2002) three perspective view of organizational culture, their perceptions are categorized according to the congruence expressed between their social identity and their professional role. Perceptions shared about their departmental culture are similarly categorized which provides insight about the influence of policies, practices, and collegial interactions on professional lives.

Bakgrund: I och med Florence Nightingales grundande av den moderna sjuksköterskeprofessionen som ett kvinnoyrke försvann män ur professionen fram till 1900- talets mitt. Grunden för omvårdnadsvetenskapen är Caritas motivet, mellanmänskliga kärleken, som kan visas i former av ansning, lekande och lärande. Det finns djupt inflätade normer i samhället som styr vad som är manligt och vad som är kvinnligt. Dessa normer komplicerar rollerna för män som innehar kvinnodominerade yrken, t.ex. män inom sjuksköterskeyrket. Syfte: Att ur ett genusperspektiv belysa hur manliga sjuksköterskor identifierar sig i sin yrkesroll. Metoden: Metoden är en litteraturöversikt av 11 kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar, publicerade de senaste 13 åren. Två olika mallar har tillämpats för att hitta gemensamma fynd. Resultatet: Män söker sig till yrket för att de vill hjälpa andra och inneha ett stabilt yrke. Artiklarnas deltagare rapporterar att vården av andra är en del av att vara en god medmänniska. Det framkom att manliga sjuksköterskor har en rädsla för att anklagas för felaktig beröring från både manliga och kvinnliga patienter och därför var restriktiva i sin beröring jämfört med kvinnliga kollegor. Artikeldeltagarna rapporterade att de ibland kände sig oönskade p.g.a. sitt fysiska kön och fick utföra mer fysiskt tungt arbete än kollegor. Slutsats och klinisk betydelse: Manliga sjuksköterskor identifierar sig själva som just sjuksköterskor, men patienter och kollegor delar inte alltid denna uppfattning. Uppsatsen belyser brister i sjuksköterskeutbildningar men uppmanar också att stereotypiseringen av sjuksköterskeyrket ska förändras. / Background: After Florence Nightingale established the modern nursing profession as a female occupation, men disappeared from nursing until the middle 20th century. The foundation for caring science is the Caritas motive, intra-human love, which can be displayed through grooming, playing and teaching. There are deeply rooted norms in society controlling what is masculine and what is feminine. These norms complicate the roles for men in female dominated professions, e.g. males within nursing. Aim: To enlighten how male nurses identify themselves within their professional roles through a gender perspective. Method: The method used is a literature overview on 11 qualitative and peer reviewed articles, published within the last 13 years. Two frames were applied to identify common findings. Results: Men choose nursing because they wanted to help others and obtain a stable career. The participants reported that caring for others was a part of being a decent human being. It was also reported that male nurses have a fear of being accused of inappropriate touching from both male and female patients. Study participants were more restrictive in their touch than their female colleagues. They reported feeling unwanted because of their physical gender and that they did more physically demanding labor than their colleagues. Conclusion and clinical impact: Male nurses do identify themselves as nurses, but patients and colleagues do not always agree. This study illuminates some flaws during nursing education and encourages change in stereotyping men within the nursing profession.

This study is intended to study how the social worker in financial assistance relates to the social workers exercise of its authority, regarding the Social Services Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. In concerning how the social worker treats and handles the cases of their clients, but also what significancethe organization's policies and goals have on the social worker’s role and the formation of their professional identity. To answer these questions the study chose a qualitative approach. Because the purpose of this study is to investigate the social worker’s personal beliefs about their way of conducting social work. With the support of previous research in this area, the study has produced its information in the form of deep interviews. The study chose to confine the study to the Stockholm region and received a total of eight informants who represent a significant part of the empirical material. The result demonstrates that there is a difficulty for the social worker in applying the Social Services Act, the Administrative Act and the policies of the workplace in full. This is due to various factors which the social workers feel they encounter in their work. These factors that cause difficulties are caused by the position of power the social worker holds in their professional capacity and the power of jurisdiction the social worker has in its official authority when handling clients’ cases.  These factors arise from the position of power the social worker has through their professional role and the power of jurisdiction worker has over his powers. The results also revealed that there are differences in how attitudes brought to bear on clients in financial assistance and that there are different factors that are the basis for this.  The conclusion of this study demonstrates that the social worker feels that their actions and capability is affected by lack of time, stress, financial budget, guidelines and unreasonable demands of the profession. That leads to the social worker as an official person ending up in a complex situation, where contradictions are between the client's needs and the organization's guidelines. / Denna studie syftar till att studera hur socialarbetaren inom ekonomiskt bistånd förhåller sig kring sitt myndighetsutövande, gällande socialtjänstlagen och förvaltningslagen i mötet med klienten. Samt hur detta bemötande har för inverkan på handläggningen av klienters ärenden, men även vilken betydelse socialtjänstens riktlinjer och verksamhetsmål har för inverkan på socialarbetarens yrkesroll och formandet av dennes yrkesidentitet. För att kunna besvara dessa frågor valdes en kvalitativ ansats, eftersom syftet med studien var att studera hur socialarbetarens personliga uppfattningar kring dennes arbete påverkar arbetssättet. Med stöd av tidigare forskning inom ämnet, har studiens information införskaffats genom djupintervjuer. Studien avgränsades till Stockholms län och med sammanlagt åtta informanter.Resultatet påvisar att det råder svårigheter för socialarbetaren att förhålla sig till socialtjänstlagen, förvaltningslagen och till verksamhetens riktlinjer fullt ut. Studien visar att detta beror på olika faktorer som påverkar den enskilda socialarbetarens handlingsutrymme, såsom lagrum, riktlinjer, egna värderingar och privata föreställningar. I synnerhet när dessa privata föreställningar och värderingar motsätter sig socialtjänstens och klientens behov. Då det kan påverka handläggningen av klienters ärenden. Dessa faktorer uppstår på grund av den maktposition socialarbetaren har genom sin yrkesroll och den maktbehörighet socialarbetaren har via sin myndighetsutövning. I resultatet framkom även att det råder skillnader i hur förhållningssättet utövas gentemot klienterna inom ekonomiskt bistånd och att det är olika faktorer som ligger till grund för detta. Studiens slutsats påvisade att socialarbetaren upplever handlingsutrymmet påverkas av följande faktorer som tidsbrist, stress, ekonomiska resurser, riktlinjer och kraven på yrkesprofessionen. Detta leder till att socialarbetaren som myndighetsperson hamnar i en komplicerad situation, där motsättningar ställs mellan klientens behov och organisationens riktlinjer.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utforska hur revisorns egenskaper och uppfattningar om en god revisor påverkar den professionella och organisatoriska identiteten. Metod: Genom att använda oss av ett positivistiskt synsätt i kombination med en deduktiv ansats och en kvantitativ metod har vi erhållit vårt empiriska material. Teoretiskt perspektiv: Studien utgår från litteratur gällande revisorns traditionella och nya roll. Vidare har teori om professionell och organisatorisk identitet använts samt andra teorier inom vårt ämnesområde. Empirisk metod: SPSS har använts för att analysera vår empiri som erhållits genom en kvantitativ metod, enkäter. Empirin har analyserats genom multipel regressionsanalys samt faktoranalys. Resultat: Vårt resultat visar på att organisatorisk och professionell identitet lever i symbios och kan numera betraktas som en totalidentitet för revisorn. / Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how the characteristics of an auditor and an auditor’s perception of a well performing auditor effects the professional and organizational identity. Methodology: By using a positivistic view with a deductive approach and a quantitative method we have obtained our empirical material. Theoretical perspective: The study emanates from literature regarding the auditor’s traditional and new role. Furthermore theory about professional and organizational identity have been used among other theories within our research area. Empirical methodology: SPSS has been used to analyze our empirical foundation obtained through a quantitative method, surveys. The empirical foundation has been analyzed through multiple regression analysis and factor analysis. Conclusions: The result of our study shows a symbiosis between professional and organizational identity. They should now be considered as a one-unit identity.