Abstract
This chapter elaborates professional learning from two complementary perspectives, namely professional identity and agency. Starting with the conceptualization of identity and agency, the chapter illustrates how professional identity and agency are intertwined with workplace learning at the individual and social levels. In theoretical terms we adhere to a subject-centred socio-cultural approach. This implies that professional learning is seen as a dual process, involving identity negotiation and the development of work practices (including the practice of agency), with both aspects taking place within the socio-cultural and material conditions of the workplace. We see professional identity as constituted by subjects’ conceptions of themselves as professional actors, i.e. as individuals with professional commitments, ideals, interests, beliefs, values, and ethical standards. Agency is needed for the renegotiation of work identities, and for the continuous and innovative development of work practices. We see professional agency as being exercised when professional subjects and/or communities influence, make choices, and take stances on their work and/or their professional identities. The chapter summarizes evidence on the constraints and resources that appear to be most influential for professional identity negotiations and for the practice of professional agency at work, especially in education and health care work. Empirical evidence is presented on aspects operating at the work community, work organization, and individual levels. As a practical conclusion, it is suggested that there is a need for practice-based interventions that will promote professional learning concurrently at the individual and social levels. Such interventions will involve agency-centred couplings between these levels.
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- 1.
In this chapter we use the concept of identity construction in referring to the initial phase of identity formation, for example, among novice workers when they construct their sense of self in relation to their vocation and work. By identity negotiation we refer to the continuous and on-going processes taking place in the everyday situational practices of the workplace. In contrast, identity renegotiation refers to situations which impel or even require employees to modify their work identities. Typical situations of this kind include organizational reforms and changes in subjects’ work tasks, duties, and responsibilities.
- 2.
The terminology in the field is not strictly demarcated, but tendencies can be identified. Occupational identity broadly refers to the identities of a range of occupational fields, such as the metal industry, health care, banking services, and agriculture. Vocational identity refers to more personal aspects of identity in various vocational fields. It has connotations of personal commitment, perhaps involving a mission to take care of or educate other people. Professional identity operates at a general level, and the term is used in this chapter to refer to professional employees’ identities in relation to their work, as opposed to hobby-like activities. Interestingly, in everyday speech the term “professional” is often connected to high status vocations that demand the kind of highly valued expertise gained through higher education. Thus, lawyers and medical doctors/physicians are often seen as “professionals,” while teachers and nurses may be seen more as “semi-professionals” or “borderline professionals”. Work identity has a fairly similar meaning to professional identity, as used in the more general (non-evaluative) sense, but it tends to refer to more concrete or everyday work activities. In its most comprehensive connotations it overlaps with the concept of work-related identity, which covers also the role of work in the subject’s entire life-sphere, and includes also free time and family life (see Kirpal 2004).
- 3.
Such suggestions have been assumed to include changing cultural practices and cultural norms, along with situational demands, constraints, and opportunities (e.g. Billett 2007).
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Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P., Paloniemi, S. (2014). Identity and Agency in Professional Learning. In: Billett, S., Harteis, C., Gruber, H. (eds) International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8902-8_24
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