Abstract
This paper explores the development of professional identity as a relationship between professional and personal aspects of life. The focus is on student and novice professional psychologists’ and political scientists’ processes of professional identity formation in their transition from higher education to working life. Drawing on Wenger’s theory of nexus of multimembership (1998), the findings indicate that professional identity is a dynamic relationship between different life spheres rather than an isolated phenomenon only taking place at the university or in the work context. The analysis yielded three different forms of professional identity, non-differentiated identity, compartmentalised identity and integrated identity, which exemplify different negotiated relationships between professional, personal and private life spheres. The findings show that these three forms of professional identities are sequential, from an individual focus to more relational and integrated ways of reasoning about one’s profession. It is through the negotiations between personal and socially derived imperatives that identity formation progresses throughout working lives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrahamsson, L. (2006). Exploring Constructions of Gendered Identities at Work. In S. Billett, T. Fenwick, & M. Somerville (Eds.), Work, Subjectivity and Learning. Dordrecht: Springer.
Abrandt Dahlgren, M., Hult, H., Dahlgren, L. O., Hård af Segerstad, H., & Johansson, K. (2006). From senior students’ to novice worker: learning trajectories in political science, psychology and mechanical engineering. Studies in Higher Education, 31(5), 569–587. doi:10.1080/03075070600923400.
Alvesson, M. (2000). Social Identity and the Problem of Loyalty in Knowledge-Intensive Companies. Journal of Management Studies, 37(8), 1101–1123. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00218.
Atkins, M. J. (1999). Oven-ready and self-basting: taking stock of employability skills. Teaching in Higher Education, 4(2), 267–281. doi:10.1080/1356251990040208.
Billett, S. (2006). Work, Subjectivity and Learning. In S. Billett, T. Fenwick, & M. Somerville (Eds.), Work, Subjectivity and Learning. Dordrecht: Springer.
Billett, S. (2007). Exercising Self Through Working Life: Learning, Work and Identity. In A. Brown, S. Kirpal, & F. Rauner (Eds.), Identities at Work. Dordrecht: Springer.
Billett, S., & Pavlova, M. (2005). Learning through working life: self and individuals’ agentic actions. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 24(3), 195–211. doi:10.1080/02601370500134891.
Billett, S., & Somerville, M. (2004). Transformations at Work: identity and learning. Studies in Continuing Education, 26(2), 309–326. doi:10.1080/158037042000225272.
Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming Qualitative Information. Thousands Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Dahlgren, L. O., Handal, G., Szkudlarek, T., & Bayer, M. (2007). Students as Journeymen between Cultures of Higher Education and Work. Higher Education in Europe, 32(4), 305–316. doi:10.1080/03797720802066005.
Gurwitsch, A. (1964). The Field of Consciousness. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Hodkinson, P., Biesta, G., & James, D. (2008). Understanding Learning Culturally: Overcoming the Dualism Between Social and Individual Views of Learning. Vocations and Learning, 1, 1–5. doi:10.1007/s12186-007-9001-y.
Hodkinson, P., & Hodkinson, H. (2003). Individuals, Community of Practice and the Policy Context: school teachers’ learning in their work place. Studies in Continuing Education, 25(1), 3–21. doi:10.1080/01580370309284.
Hodkinson, P., Hodkinson, H., Evans, K., Kersh, N., Fuller, A., Unwin, L., & Senker, P. (2004). The significance of individual biography in workplace learning. Studies in the Education of Adults, 36(1), 6–24.
Nyström, S. (2008). Graduates Doing Gender as Early Career Professional, Submitted to. Career Development International.
Nyström, S., Abrandt Dahlgren, M., & Dahlgren, L. O. (2008). A winding road — Professional trajectories from higher education to working life; a case study of political science and psychology graduates, Accepted to Studies in Continuing Education.
Petri, C. (1999) Traditionella och icke-traditionella studenter, Studenterna i Sverige (StudS), Arbetsrapport nr 8, Stockholm: Högskoleverkets informationsavdelning.
Reid, A., Dahlgren, L. O., Petocz, P., & Abrandt Dahlgren, M. (2007) Identity and Engagement for Professional Formation. Accepted to Studies in Higher Education.
Reid, A., & Solomonides, I. (2007) Design students’ experience of engagement and creativity. Accepted in Art, design and Communication in Higher Education.
Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. Del Rio, & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salling Olesen, H. (2001). Professional identity as learning processes in life histories, in Journal of Workplace Learning, 13:7/8, 290–297.
Teichler, U. (1998). The Transition from Higher Education to Employment in Europe. Higher Education in Europe, XXIII, 4, 535–558.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nyström, S. The Dynamics of Professional Identity Formation: Graduates’ Transitions from Higher Education to Working Life. Vocations and Learning 2, 1–18 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-008-9014-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-008-9014-1