Voices of marginalized counselors-in-training: Navigating cultural and ethnic identities in professional identity development

The professional identity of a counselor educator develops primarily during an individual's doctoral preparation program. This study employed consensual qualitative research methodology to examine the phenomenon of professional identity development in counselor education doctoral students (CEDS) in a cohort model. Cross-sectional focus groups were conducted with three cohorts of doctoral students in counselor education (N = 18) to identify the experiences that contributed to their professional identity development. The findings identified that (a) programmatic goals to develop professional identity align with the experiences most influential to CEDS, (b) experiential learning opportunities enhanced CEDS professional identity development, (c) the relationships with mentors and faculty contribute to their identity as a counselor educator, and (d) being perceived as a counselor educator by faculty is influential in professional identity development. Implications for counselor education and the counseling profession are discussed.Keywords: consensual qualitative research, counseling, counselor education and supervision, doctoral student development, professional identity developmentProfessional identity development is central to counseling professionals' ethical practice (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2010; Granello & Young, 2012). The process of professional identity development is defined as the successful integration of personal attributes and professional training in the context of a professional (Gibson, Dollarhide, & Moss, 2010, pp. 23-24). Counselor education doctoral students (CEDS) develop their identity as counselor educators primarily during their doctoral preparation program (Calley & Hawley, 2008; Carlson, Portman, & Bartlett, 2006; Zimpfer, Cox, West, Bubenzer, & Brooks, 1997). Specifically, intentional experiences designed by faculty and/or initiated by CEDS during then-doctoral preparation program promote their professional identity development as counselor educators, supporting an effective transition into academia (Carlson et al., 2006). Counselor education doctoral programs employ diverse pedagogical strategies to promote their students' identity development (e.g., Zimpfer et al., 1997). However, the impact that the experiences and strategies developed within programs has on students and their professional identity has not been examined in previous research. Therefore, an increased understanding of CEDS' professional identity development might offer insight into pedagogical experiences that enhance doctoral students' transition from counseling practitioners to faculty members in higher education (Calley & Hawley, 2008; Magnuson et al., 2003).Professional identity development within counselor education can be described as both an intrapersonal and interpersonal process (Gibson et al., 2010). The intrapersonal process is an internalization of knowledge shared by faculty members and supervisors (e.g., recognizing personal strengths; areas of growth in academic roles). The interpersonal process develops during immersion into the norms of the professional community (e.g., submitting manuscripts for publication, presenting papers at conferences, teaching courses). These two developmental processes co-occur while counselor education trainees are conceptualizing their specific roles and tasks within academia.Within counselor educators' professional identity development, three primary roles emerge: (a) teaching and supervision, (b) research and scholarship, and (c) service (Calley & Hawley, 2008). An exploration of the tasks and/or experiences that facilitate doctoral students' understanding of their future roles as counselor educators is needed (Calley & Hawley, 2008; Gibson et al, 2010). Carlson and colleagues (2006) developed a conceptual model of professional identity development in counselor education consisting of seven roles or tasks: (a) program expectations, (b) teaching and supervision, (c) research, (d) publications, (e) grants and funding, (f) service and conferences, (g) networking, and (h) professional development. …

ABSTRACTThis case study examines how a structured workshop series centering ethnic and cultural identity integration influenced the professional identity development (PID) of counselors‐in‐training (CITs). The workshop series was grounded in transformational learning and cultural wealth frameworks. The study highlights how solidarity, cultural integration, and advocacy emerged through reflective and experiential practices. Findings suggest that intentional spaces centering ethnic and cultural identities can foster belonging and authenticity in PID among CITs from historically marginalized backgrounds.

This article offers insight into the universality of professionalism in legal education. It does so in the context of an evaluation of a unit that forms part of the Australian National University's Legal Workshop Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice. The evaluation is undertaken with reference to a Scottish vocational course and experience upon which the ANU Legal Workshop course is based. It also seeks to inform the debate about including the development of professional identity in pre-practice legal education. The evaluation of the ANU Legal Workshop unit involved a comparison of experiences in both ANU and the University of Strathclyde. The comparison indicates that legal professional identity has universal elements and that professional working can be embedded in students' learning even where that occurs wholly online. This suggests that the development of professional culture and professional identity can be encouraged to start prior to admission to practice.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to uncover how Social Network Sites (SNSs) active users who are eager to be knowledgeable about a specific domain develop a professional identity, what practices they use, and how do SNSs afford professional identity development. Background: Some researchers have shown that SNSs play a central role in personal development, but there is a lack of studies tracing the actual role of SNSs affordances in professional identity development. Methodology: Seven participants were followed during a whole year; we examined their professional identity development based on data collected from interviews, cued retrospective reports, and online activities. Contribution: The study shows that SNSs create a new context for professional identity development, a context whose new characteristics bring specific actors to a spectacular development in their professional identity. Based on the findings we suggest a new framework of professional identity development with SNSs. Findings: We identified a wide range of activities and changes in the perceived professional identity. We found that there are four phases of SNS’s professional identity development. The study also uncovers the three aspects of identity development: self-presentation, around-the-clock sociality, and interaction with information. The model of professional development through intensive use of SNSs is validated by our reports on the actual behaviors afforded by SNSs. Recommendations for Practitioners: The conceptual framework displayed in the article can help educational institutions to implement SNSs in order to enhance professional identity development. Guidance will allow students to handle self-presentation, sociality, and information management. By doing so, the guides will help achieving meaningful SNS activities and encouraging students to be involved in their fields of interest, thereby enhancing their professional identity. Future Research: Future studies may examine the implementation of SNSs for the exploration process leading to identity development in various educational institutions. A few years longitudinal study may examine the lifelong professional identity development in varied SNSs. Moreover, in the COVID-19 world crisis when life is in digital spaces more than ever, it will be interesting to study the role of SNSs of professional identity development in the population that lost their jobs.

The results presented in this article are taken from a case study of novice primary school mathematics teachers’ professional identity development from the perspective of the teachers themselves. The empirical material was collected through self-recordings, observations and interviews. The results show how the professional identity development of these novice teachers becomes a pursuit in line with their image of a primary school teacher. To develop a sense of themselves as primary school teachers they need to establish their own criteria - individual (including graduation and personal knowledge) and social (the ability to work in one school, have colleagues and have a class of their own for which they do the planning and teaching). These criteria are shown to be both a precondition for and a part of professional identity development. The novice teachers’ image of what it means to be a primary school teacher directs their actions and becomes the goal of their professional identity development. Because of its high impact, student and novice teachers’ image of primary school teachers ought to be made visible in both teacher education and teacher induction.

Increasingly, Native Chinese Mandarin teachers have been migrating to the United States and taking positions as Mandarin teachers in U.S. schools. Many have needed support for professional identity development as bicultural and bilingual teachers given their new social cultural context. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the experiences and professional identity development of early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers in one Northwest Pacific city. Using a theoretical framework of social cultural theory in education and the bicultural identity integration construct, I conducted a multiple case study of four early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers in four different school contexts: public school, private school, Confucius classroom, and charter school. Data sources were two semi-structured interviews and the Bicultural Identity Integration Scale. Based on my data analysis, I developed four cases, conducted a cross-case comparison, and identified themes about the four early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers: (a) they experienced shifts, development, and transformation in their professional identity, (b) their professional identity was multi-faceted, (c) their professional identity interacted with their cultural identity, and (d) their bicultural identity integration described the connection between their professional identity and cultural identity. Conclusions drawn from these Native Chinese Mandarin teachers' voices include calling for a multicultural approach when teaching, encouraging educational stakeholders to take a leading role to support social and cultural teaching, providing parents with opportunities to be involved in their children's learning, and establishing a community that empowers bicultural teachers' professional identity development in U.S. schools.

Understanding counseling trainees’ social justice advocacy development is important because it is one of the primary competencies that need to be developed through professional training, which contributes to the wellness of socioeconomically and culturally diverse clients. This study investigated the influence of professional identity and social justice training experience on counseling trainees’ social justice advocacy. Implications to promote counseling trainees’ social justice advocacy competencies through counselor education training and research are provided.

With the rapid development of economic and cultural internationalization and globalization, especially under the Belt and Road Initiative, college English for non-English majors has become one of the important aspects in quality improvement of higher education and the cultivation of well-rounded international talents in colleges and universities. College English teachers are the leading executors of college English curriculum and educational system. Therefore, the teachers’ qualities determine whether the curriculum and system will be successful or not. How to promote college English teachers’ sense of belonging and worth, their professional identity and the quality of their teaching practice has become a vital issue we are now confronting with. Studies on the influencing factors of teachers’ professional identity development can be found. Researches about the differences and similarities of different types of teachers’ professional identity development can also be found. However, few researches about the connotation or construction paths about novice college English teachers’ professional identity development can be found. Teachers’ professional identity is about the process of teachers’ learning which is achieved through continuous discussion and communication with other members in various situations created by communities in both personal life and professional life. This research analyzes the connotation of novice college English teacher’s professional identity development. Learning in the form of community and reflection on the teaching practice is vital to help novice teachers improve their professional identity development. The researcher also puts forward some suggestions on the construction paths of the development, which might enhance their professional identity development in objective, individual, practice and emotion, so as to bring some enlightenment to relevant researchers.

This article explores the student outcomes of a progressive case on the development of professional identity and professionalism within first‐year student pharmacists.

Through overall developments and movements, migration has spread throughout the world, causing concurrence and amalgamation of heterogeneous and culturally different societies. Present day societies are culturally even more diverse: individuals live in numerous cultures, speak in various languages, and have different identities. Despite the fact that the movement of Armenians previously existed in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and Armenians have made numerous networks around the world, the considerable flow of relocation and the modern term of the Armenian Diaspora has developed because of the First World War after the Armenian Genocide in 1915, more explicitly, it comprises mostly individuals who survived the Armenian Genocide. The current research investigates the lives of the Armenian Diaspora in Germany, more specifically, the ones that have moved to Germany from Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. Studying the lives of the Armenian ethnic group in a host society, it discusses the issues of living in heterogeneous societies and cultures, the role that religion plays in the migration and integration context, affiliation and attachment to various cultures, hybrid cultural, religious and social identities: how Armenians perceive themselves and different societies in Germany, what it feels like to be away from their homeland and live in various cultures simultaneously, to what cultures they have a sense of belonging, how they endeavour to retain their ethnic, religious, and cultural identities, what assists them in the integration process, and how they assess their lives in Germany. The research applies three methods: participant observation, semi-structured interview and Stefan Huber’s questionnaire “The Centrality of Religiosity Scale”. Religion plays a vital role in most of the interviewees’ lives, depending on various circumstances, such as a spiritual nourishment, a psychological support, closeness to one’s ethnicity or ethnic group, access to the host society, etc. According to the current research results, the Armenian interviewees in Germany perceive religion as an inseparable part of their culture, since their religious, ethnic, and cultural identities are intertwined and regarded as an inseparable unit: religious identity – Christian, ethnic identity – Armenian, cultural identity – customs and traditions. Christianity is perceived and practiced by the Armenian interviewees as a ‘cultural religion’ for the following reasons. They consider themselves to be Christians, but are not actively engaged in religious rituals or prayers. Christianity played an important role in the history of Armenians since it helped them preserve their ethnic identity and culture throughout history. Christianity has become an inseparable part of their culture since many Armenian customs and traditions are tightly connected to it and play an important role in their ethnic, national, cultural and religious identities. Interestingly enough, even those, who consider themselves to be atheists, conceive Christianity as an indispensable part of the Armenian culture and identity.

In recent research on career development, job retainment, and vocational education and training (VET), professional and vocational identification processes and identity development have proven to be key to forming a strong commitment to a profession and/or employer and to lead to better performance and satisfaction at work, resulting in fewer resignations (van Dick et al., 2004;van Dick, 2017). Empirical findings indicate that professional and vocational identification processes and identity development can be supported in experienced workers, novice workers, and students in vocational training programs. However, little is known about the conditions necessary for either explicitly promoting professional identification and identity development or how to provide adequate space for their development at different career stages (e.g., apprenticeship, professional development in mid-career, re-education, or career transitions). Therefore, this Research Topic deals with the development, predictors, and effects of vocational and organizational identification in VET in multiple domains and professions. The objective of this editorial is to provide an overview of the research perspectives and aims of the articles presented in this Research Topic. It will shed light on current theoretical approaches, empirical research on professional identity, and identification development in different countries, in a variety of professions, and across career stages. According to Godfredson's Career Choice Theory, unconscious processes influence the development of young peoples' career aspirations. Mutlu et al. present a newly developed approval-sensitive career orientation workshop called "Logic of Career Choice", which was designed to encourage youths to reflect on unconsciously developed career preferences and excluded career options. Results from their quasi-experimental study with a control and treatment group of more than 1500 secondary students indicate that this workshopmoderated by decision-making certainty -can improve career choice by promoting reflection on needs and career-related activities. Thus, the study provides an impetus for designing approval-sensitive career orientation.Teachers' identification with their profession is assumed to correlate with their professional behaviour and desire to remain in the profession. In a longitudinal study (four measurement points, 79 vocational teachers in Germany) Weiß et al. investigated two conditions of teachers' identification development during teacher training: perceived autonomy support and autonomy thwarting behaviour of seminar teachers. Cross-lagged panel analyses show that professional identification after six months of teacher training significantly predicts the intention to remain in the teaching profession half a year later. Significant cross paths describe positive effects between professional identification and autonomy support, and negative effects between professional identification and autonomy thwarting.Vocational identification, crucial for both individuals and organizations, denotes alignment with one's career and employer. It fosters positive emotions and job satisfaction for employees and enhances performance and bolsters retention for employers. Amid demographic shifts and declining full-time work, securing young talent early and preventing attrition during apprenticeship is vital. Research underscores the correlation between vocational identification and satisfaction, retention, and performance. However, scant attention has been paid to apprentices' identification in vocational programs. In the study by Wuttke et al. factors affecting apprentices' identification are explored, particularly training quality and trainer competence. Results indicate that strong identification with both the career and the organization is largely driven by quality training and job satisfaction.Thole's contribution outlines a mixed methods approach to identity development in VET in Germany. Through analysis of longitudinal case studies and curricular documents, the impact of a new VET curriculum for the retail sector on learners' vocational identity is explored and current research designs and relevant theoretical approaches are reviewed. Data collection and analysis culminate in a theme-centered process analysis. Exemplary cases demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach in understanding individual identities and generating broader insights into the identity development of VET learners. The potential of the approach for pedagogical design support is discussed. Summarizing these research-based discussions, it is important to keep in mind that for companies, recruiting and retaining well-trained workers has become a major challenge that is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. Many economies are struggling with shortages in qualified labour force, which will intensify drastically in the coming years (Cedefop, 2016, p. 59). Identification therefore is a key objective of all VET programs (Heinrichs et al., 2023). In this time of instability, as industries face rapid technological advances and changing economic landscapes, identification with training institutions and occupations will be both challenging and of crucial importance.

There has been a significant increase of international students in Australian social work education over the past decade. Issues around international students’ language skills, cultural capital or competence, special needs and field education experiences have been explored in social work literature. However, the literature to date has a tendency to focus on international students’ deficits, or the strategies implemented to address the identified deficits. Professional identity, a critical aspect of social work education, remains an under-researched topic in international students. Professional identity development in social work is often considered a complex process which is influenced by interacting internal or external factors. For example, personal or cultural identities can contribute to professional identity development in social work students in general, while discrimination or institutional oppression is found to negatively affect professional identity development in social work students. Intersectionality sees a person’s identity as fluid and multifold, and offers a useful framework for understanding identity issues in international students. Applying the concept of intersectionality, this meta-ethnography reviews six qualitative studies, guided by the seven phrases established by Noblit and Hare. The findings show professional identity development in international students can be influenced by interacting personal, linguistic, professional, academic, cultural and social factors. An intersecting model incorporating the six identified key themes was developed to provide a conceptual framework for professional identity development in international social work students.

Exploring midwifery students’ experiences of professional identity development during clinical placement: A qualitative study

Instructional design (ID) education is increasingly moving from a modelbased to a design-based approach, prompting renewed attention on requirements to align students’ and practitioners’ professional identities. Yet there is little current understanding of how traditionally-used pedagogies, such as project-based learning (PjBL), contribute to the necessary identity development of students. This project aims to identify connections between students’ development of professional identity and elements of PjBL, based on a two-year case study of an ID graduate course in Romania. Data was generated via observations, focus groups, written reflections and questionnaires. First, using established PjBL concepts, such as related cases, cognitive tools and contextual support, I examine how the course design was deployed and received by the students. Second, using Communities of Practice concepts, such as mutuality of engagement and trajectories, I analyse how students developed their professional identity during the course. Third, I integrate the two perspectives to identify connections emerging throughout the stages of the course. The findings suggest that incorporating interactions with clients in student projects benefits students’ development of professional identity, by facilitating a more complex accountability to a joint enterprise which, in turn, lessens the need for contextual support from teachers. Yet students’ existing repertoire of problem-solving, reflection and teamworking skills influences how they use and benefit from elements of PjBL, such as related cases and cognitive and collaboration tools. Additionally, those student teams engaging in joint effort, as opposed to dividing labour, make richer use of the cognitive tools provided, leading to a more inbound trajectory into ID identity. The analysis has implications for the effectiveness of PjBL courses, as well as for interventions designed to develop students’ professional identity. Moreover, the theoretical analysis widens current perspectives about the dilemmas and difficulties experienced by students trying to make the transition into professional life.

This quantitative study examined professional identity development and orientation for 489 counseling practitioners, educators, and trainees as predicted by participant‐identified sex and engagement in professional activities. Differences between male and female participants regarding aspects of professional identity were evaluated. Discriminant analysis results indicate sex differences in professional identity development. Additional regression analysis revealed a significant predictive relationship between professional engagement and professional identity orientation and development.