Dimensions of professional knowledge

Abstract

This study concern how professional knowledge is discussed, understood and employed by integration workers in an integration activity in Sweden called Civic Orientation. The changing and complex nature of integration work imply that integration workers need specialized knowledge to ensure quality of the activity. Defining what is meant by professional knowledge is especially important and to address these issues, this study focuses on what constitutes professional knowledge with respect to the efforts made to support immigrant integration. Our study reveales that professional knowledge in Civic Orientation encompasses the understanding and responding to the heterogeneity of the groups in daily interactions, developing standardized procedures; and knowledge about how to establishing a cumulative approach to knowledge in the organization. We argue that these motives are embedded in different perspectives on culture and knowledge. Furthermore, these different perspectives are expressed as tensions between values of creativity and standardization as well as between equality and heterogeneity.