Cocurricular practice communities and student identity transition

Abstract

Cocurricular student communities of practice (CoP) can significantly impact a student's construction of their professional self. This interpretative phenomenological analysis explored the perspectives of four near graduates and one recently graduated undergraduate student at a mid-size, regional public college regarding how their CoP engagement affected their identity transition from student to professional. It used the lens of Ibarra's (1999) conceptualization of how novices construct their professional identity. Additionally, this study investigated how students' professional identity affected their academic performance and career preparation. This study's first conclusion is that the participants' core values remained constant: they guided all aspects of their student engagements, from their choice of involvements, role models, and mentors to the meaning they derived from their experiences. Its second conclusion is that coursework was essential but insufficient for developing themselves as professionals. Their experiences in their involvements, which they believed mirrored actual workplaces, prompted them to form their professional identity and increased their skills, confidence, agency, and aspirations. Its third conclusion is that three mechanisms worked linearly to prompt the participants' sense of self as a professional: the successful enactment of professional roles produced confidence, which inspired an evolution in their sense of their professional and personal selves that they were able to describe in terms of their agency, aspirations, career preparation, and academic performance.--Author's abstract