Yes / In the last decade, occupational therapists have faced new performance and commissioning demands from the state. These demands, such as Payment by Results (PbR) or funding tied to performance, have, on the face of it, improved service delivery and patient experience. However, they have also introduced new ways of working and new demands from management that have contributed to a crisis of identity, as therapists struggle to reconcile conflict- ing professional, managerial, and service demands with their day-to-day practice (Lloyd et al 2010). Professionals possess a unique and complex body of knowledge that cannot easily be appreciated and under- stood by those outside the profession. This body of knowledge, along with autonomy and self-regulation, are regarded as important aspects of professionalism and professional identity. However, it is now customary for occupational therapists to work as lone professionals within multi-disciplinary teams, often with professionals of other disciplines as their line or service managers, thereby experiencing differing local management and variant local practice.

Yes / Objectives: Unlike the technological advances in cross-sectional imaging, the adoption of CR and DR has been relatively overlooked in terms of the additional radiographer skills and competences required for optimal practice. Furthermore, projection radiography is often referred to as basic, plain or other words suggesting simplicity or entry-level skill requirements. Radiographers’ professional identity is connected with the discourse expressed via the language used in daily practice and consequently, if the perception of projection radiography is regarded as simple practice not requiring much reflection or complex decision-making, apathy and carelessness may arise. The purpose of this narrative review was to raise projection radiography from its longstanding lowly place and re-position it as a specialist imaging field. Key findings: Danish pre-registration radiography curricula contain little mention of projection radiography and a low proportion (n ¼ 17/144; 11.8%) of Danish radiography students chose to focus on projection radiography within publicly available BSc. theses between 2016 and 2020 as compared to topics related to CT and MRI (n ¼ 60/144; 41.7%). Conclusion: By changing how we as the profession perceive the role and position of projection radiography, we can start to rebuild its lost prestige and demand a greater, more detailed and clinically relevant educational offering from academic partners. For this to commence, the language and terminology we use to describe ourselves and tasks undertaken must reflect the complexity of the profession. Implications for practice: Regardless of imaging modality, every patient should be assured that a radiographer with expertise in acquiring images of diagnostic quality undertakes their examination. Reclaiming the prestige of projection radiography may lead students and radiographers to recognize projection radiography as a demanding specialist field for the benefit of the patients.

Sachs (2005) argues that a conceptual framework of identity can guide teachers on how to construct their own ideas regarding “how to be”, “how to act”, and “how to understand” their work (p. 15). However, teachers who work in a foreign context may need to adapt their conceptual framework of identity in order to improve the fit between themselves and their workplace. With this thought in mind, the current qualitative, exploratory study is concerned with the professional identity adaptation of a group of ten native English speaking teachers working at two governmental institutes in the state of Qatar. The aim of this study was two-fold: first, to discover what factors affect teachers’ self-perception and professional identity; second, to explore implications for the practice of these native English speaking teachers (NESTs). Research data collected through in-depth semi-structured interviewing and classroom observations revealed that both institutional and intrapersonal factors were involved in the adaptation of the teachers’ professional identity and the teachers’ approaches to adapt their pedagogy. In other words, one of the noticeable features of the teachers’ professional identity adaptation was the conflict between the teachers’ expectations and the realities of the local context (interpersonal conflicts). There was evidence that teachers’ intrapersonal negotiation lead them to develop multiple identities in order to avoid any troubles at the workplace. Consequently, the mismatch between the teachers’ expectations of their professional life and the realities of the local context caused an apparent inconsistency between the teachers’ beliefs and behavior, which was considered to be a form of cognitive dissonance among the teachers. This study provides English teachers who work in a new context with pragmatic information and insights about the professional identity adjustment process. It also heightens their awareness of the possible professional identity transitions that they may go through. The study should help expatriate ESL teachers in the State of Qatar, in particular, to cope with a possible discrepancy between the idealism of their pedagogical and cultural theory, and their perceived reality of classroom practice.

No description available.

Published Article / The paper reports on the findings of a study that investigated the impact of leadership and management on the construction of professional identity of teacher trainees. The writer argues that the overall leadership and management of the host schools, where student teachers do experiential training (teaching practice), has an impact on the construction of their professional identity. The host schools provide different learning experiences (environment) which may either enhance or hinder the development of a positive professional identity. A questionnaire comprising of open-ended questions was administered to 40 teacher trainees at the School of Teacher Education, Central University of Technology, Free State. The students had just return from a six-month period of experiential training. The aim of the questionnaire was to examine their views on their experiences and expectations of the teaching practice, and whether or not the leadership and management of the school has had an impact on the construction of their professional identity. The findings revealed that a supportive and enabling environment within the host school provided a good learning experience and consequently enhanced the development of a positive professional identity whereas a non-welcoming and threatening environment had the opposite effect. Suggestions and recommendations for providing a supportive and enabling environment for all students are made.

The present study is the result of research collaboration where participating teachers and a researcher have jointly analyzed and reflected over experiences from professional training and professional work in order to develop an understanding of skills and knowledge that are relevant to the professional development and professional lives of teachers. The focus is on four female primary school teachers’ stories. Certain things run through these stories. They are (i) a quest for professional development, (ii) a strong commitment to teaching and (iii) an ongoing identity-building process. The overall purpose of the thesis is to identify and describe these processes and thus contribute meaningful knowledge to the debate on teacher professional development within the Swedish educational landscape. Two questions have been particularly important. These are: – What individual and structural conditions and processes appear to be important for professional development and career choice? – Which key events and turning points can be identified in teachers’ lives and work, focusing on the early years of the occupation and how can these be understood? The professional life stories have a chronological structure and they have been organized around three time periods. One of these is The Road to the profession, including teachers’ stories about their background, school experiences, past professional life and what has influenced them to take the step to become a teacher, and experience from their education. The second is the first years in the profession. This is the period covering the first three years of working life after teacher education. It depicted a diversity of experience and the experience of strenuous and stressful work situations in which new teachers, with high aspirations, confronted at times unanticipated work assignments and challenging conditions for which they did not always feel fully prepared. However, as well as these tensions of development there also appears to be a period of intense and stimulating knowledge development in which the teachers experienced opportunities to put their ideas about education, development, cooperation and educational projects to the test. Through this they say that they developed professionally in a way that strengthened their professional identity. The continuing work history period is the third period. It includes experience from the three year period following the first years in the profession. Here the teachers describe a process of establishment at each workplace, where the teachers’ continuing quest for educational development and change is in the fore, as is an aim toward further professional development and greater stability in the professional role. / <p>Disputationen sker fredagen den 17 december 2010, kl 13.15, Hörsal D203, Högskolan i Borås, Allegatan 1</p>

Background: The professional development of midwifery in China has been challenged by its marginalised professional status and the medical dominance within midwifery practice in the contemporary maternity care system. There has been growing confusion about, ‘Who the midwife is and what does the midwife do?’ within and outside the profession. The sense of identity crisis for the profession has become particularly salient when Chinese midwifery becomes a sub-branch of the nursing profession during the contemporary period. If, however, we consider the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Mission Statement (2008: 32) that midwives are the ‘most appropriate professionals for childbearing women in keeping childbirth normal’, then the focus on a greater understanding of midwives is needed. It is the aim of this research to facilitate this understanding by exploring how hospital-based Chinese midwives construct their professional identity in the contemporary maternity care system and the factors that significantly influence the process. Design and Method: A Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) study was conducted to achieve the research aim. A sample of 15 midwives and 5 women participants was recruited between October 2010 and May 2011 from a capital city in one province of China. The accounts from the participants in the form of in-depth individual interviews were digitally recorded and three work journals from midwife participants were also included to facilitate the exploration of the study subject. NVivo 8 was used to assist with data management for the analysis. Findings: Six principle categories were identified: ‘institutional position’; ‘organisational management’; ‘professional discourse’; ‘compromising strategies’; ‘engaging strategies’; and ‘hybrid identity’. The integration of the principle categories has developed the theoretical model ‘navigating the self in maternity care’, which suggests that professional identity construction in midwives is a dynamic process, involving a constant structural and attitudinal interplay between the external (‘obstetric nurse’) and internal (‘professional midwife’) definitions of the midwife. The model indicates that the midwives’ professional identity construction was contextualised in their ‘institutional position’ in the contemporary maternity care system. In everyday practice, midwives experienced identity dissonance in relation to two competing identities: the ‘obstetric nurse’, bound up to the ‘organisational management’ in hospital settings; and the ‘professional midwife’, associated with the ‘professional discourse’ in the midwifery profession. Two types of strategies were identified to reduce the identity dissonance – ‘compromising strategies’ and ‘engaging strategies’ – which resulted in a ‘hybrid identity’, as the construction of professional identity in individual midwives is navigating along an identity continuum with ‘obstetric nurse’ and ‘professional midwife’ at opposing ends. This thesis has expanded on the current theoretical knowledge of identity work by elaborating on the discursive practices professionals employ to legitimate their professional identity and the various strategies individuals use to negotiate their identities at work. It has also extended attention to the influence of institutional forces on professional identity construction. With specific regard to Chinese midwifery, this emerging theoretical model provides a number of possible implications for midwifery practice, education and policy which would facilitate the exploration of effective operational processes for midwives in China to develop professionally.

Newspaper journalists today find themselves at the nexus of a changing media landscape. Their professional principles and job roles are being challenged by changes in the technology they are expected to use, changes in the economic model that has supported the industry since this nation was founded, and changes in public attitudes and perceptions of newspaper journalism. This study examines these changes through the lens of social identity theory, examining how technological and economic changes have affected newspaper journalists’ perceptions about the ways in which they are able to perform their jobs and their perceptions about threats to the status of their profession, and how those beliefs affect their identification with their newspaper organizations and the profession. The primary methodological approach used was a national Web-based survey of journalists working at newspapers with circulations of more than 10,000. To supplement the survey findings, in-depth interviews were conducted with survey participants who volunteered to be interviewed. The findings included that journalists who have negative perceptions about changes in the newspaper industry will be more likely to have negative feelings about the impact of those changes on their jobs, and that journalists with negative feelings about those changes on their jobs will be more likely to have lower organizational identification. Professional identification was found to partially mediate this relationship, in large part because it has a considerable overlap with journalists’ organizational identification. This study also found that journalists who have negative perceptions about changes in the industry will be more likely to perceive the status of the profession has been threatened, and that journalists who perceive those status threats will be more likely to have lower professional identification. Additionally, journalists’ job type and the circulation size of their newspaper affected some of these relationships, such as the link between negative feelings about technological and economic changes and lower organizational identification. The implications of this study’s findings for the newspaper profession and those who study it are discussed in the last chapter. / text

<p>The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of how newly graduated social workers within the elderly care and the need assessment sector forms a professional identity through a focus on their experience of the socialization process.</p><p>The main questions concerned how work place culture socialized the newly graduated social worker in respect of her or his professional identity.</p><p>The study’s theoretical underpinning lies in Symbolic Interactionism. We have combined focus group interviews with follow-up personal interviews with the aim of deepening to our understanding of the socialization process of social workers and what it means for their professional identities.</p><p>Three main results were generated. First, that a well planned introduction and the teams’ significance to the formation of professional identity were shown to be important. Second that a needs assessment organization with a controlled and standardized professional role were noted to be too restrictive as they allowed little possibility for the new social worker to shape their own ways of working. This was particularly the case where new social workers were unclear about how to go about their work assignment. These results also showed that relation building and dialogue with clients was underemphasised and taken for granted.</p>

There is considerable concern regarding the adequacy of rural health services in New Zealand, with much attention having been paid to issues of recruitment and retention of rural general practitioners. Rhetoric of 'crisis' is often utilised to raise political awareness of the problematic, but in fact, rural general practitioner recruitment and retention has been documented for about a hundred years. For about the same length of time nurses have been providing primary health care services in rural and remote places, often working alone. Using the notion of nurses as a 'stop-gap' in the provision of rural primary health care until problems with recruitment and retention of rural general practitioners are addressed, is a rhetorical device that facilitates the under analysis of the role nurses play and the contribution that they make. The longstanding practice of rural primary care nursing in its various guises over the last century challenges the notion of nursing as a stop-gap.Any investigation of health care in the contemporary moment needs to take account of the influence of biomedical dominance, an increasingly litigious mentality in relation to health care, a shifting focus towards primary rather than secondary health care, and the positioning and re-positioning of health professionals within the neo-liberal state. The very existence of nurses working as the first point of contact in the health care system, with success over time in so far as they do not provoke undue litigation, and appear to deliver an appropriate service must raise questions about who can claim the right to be a primary health care provider. Based on qualitative research conducted in New Zealand and the Western Isles with rural primary care nurses and Family Health Nurses respectively, this thesis explores the ways that nurses construct flexible generalist professional identities that challenge traditional inter and intra-professional boundaries. In the New Zealand case, rural primary care nurses negotiate the boundaries between nursing and medicine, those within nursing itself, and also those between nursing a paramedic work. Nurses perform this boundary work by negotiating self-governing 'appropriate' and 'safe' professional identities. In the Western Isles case, the introduction of the newly developed role of Family Health Nurse serves to highlight the problematic nature of inserting an ostensibly generalist nursing role beyond the rural.