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  • © 2011

"Becoming" a Professional

an Interdisciplinary Analysis of Professional Learning

Editors:

  • Posits ‘becoming’ as a theory of emergent, iterative professional identity formation
  • Defines ‘becoming’ as a metaphor for learning
  • Advocates an interdisciplinary, international approach to ‘becoming’
  • Positions ‘becoming’ within an extensive, multidisciplinary review of the literature
  • Explores ‘becoming’ in today’s globalised world where professional status is consistently challenged
  • Examines the role of popular culture in forming professional identity as well as societal expectations of professionals

Part of the book series: Lifelong Learning Book Series (LLLB, volume 16)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
  2. Introduction

    • Lesley Scanlon
    Pages 1-11
  3. ‘Becoming’ a Professional

    • Lesley Scanlon
    Pages 13-32
  4. Learning to Be – At Work

    • David Beckett
    Pages 57-76
  5. Higher Education and Becoming a Professional

    • Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren
    Pages 77-93
  6. Becoming Authentic Professionals: Learning for Authenticity

    • Thuy T. Vu, Gloria Dall’Alba
    Pages 95-108
  7. Becoming a Medical Professional

    • Alan Bleakley
    Pages 129-151
  8. Becoming a Professional Doctor

    • Kirsty Foster
    Pages 171-193
  9. Becoming a Professional Nurse

    • Jane Davey, Sandie Bredemeyer
    Pages 195-217
  10. And the Conclusion for Now Is …?

    • Lesley Scanlon
    Pages 245-246
  11. Back Matter

    Pages 247-261

About this book

This book is founded on the idea that ‘becoming’ is the most useful defining concept for a new ‘professional’ class whose members understand that development in their working lives is an open-ended, lifelong process of refinement and learning.

In a world where being a ‘professional’ is an increasingly indistinct notion and where better education and technology are challenging ‘professional’ norms, it is imperative that we no longer think in terms of an exclusive, ‘Anglo-American’, knowledge-rich class of workers. Exploring the implications of this insight for professions including nursing, teaching, social work, engineering and the clergy, this volume aims to encourage informed debate on what it means to be a ‘professional’ in this globalised 21st century.

The book argues that ‘becoming’ a professional is a lifelong process in which individual professional identities are constructed through formal education, workplace interactions and popular culture. The book advocates the ‘ongoingness’ of developing a professional self throughout one’s professional life. What emerges is a concept of becoming a professional different from the isolated, rugged, individualistic approach to traditional professional practice as represented in popular culture. It is a book for the reflective professional.

Reviews

From the reviews:

“This book has effectively brought together a multidisciplinary menu of scholarly work based on a different theoretical perspective, a range of professions and in different contexts of work and study. … this book provides one of the latest additions to an already increasingly well-stocked shelf of publications dealing with professionalism and lifelong learning, particularly from northern perspectives. This book would work well in seminary and graduate school courses on professional development that address issues of professionalism and lifelong learning.” (Norzaini Azman, Higher Education, Vol. 64, 2012)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Lesley Scanlon

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access