Multiple Professional Identities Research Articles

Getting action for global economic justice: the micro-foundations of transnational activism

Abstract Generating momentum for activist campaigns on complicated economic issues is difficult, especially in a transnational context. So, how did activists get action on tax justice and create a movement that has changed global tax policy? Drawing on 20 years of para-ethnographic fieldwork with the Tax Justice Network, we suggest that activists initially engaged in ‘identity switching’ tactics to access professional or policy arenas from a footing in one identity, to then switch identities to activate policy shifts. A first-generation leveraged multiple professional identities to access forums, build credibility and introduce a tax lexicon to activists and policymakers. These tactics were not, however, replicable, leading a second generation to concentrate on ‘identity fixing’, including professionalization and a tightening of organizational strategy over access and activation points. Here we theorize identity switching and fixing as underappreciated micro-foundations of transnational activism and demonstrate their importance for global economic justice.

Self-inconsistency or self-expansion from wearing multiple hats? The daily effects of enacting multiple professional identities on work meaningfulness.

People increasingly support themselves through multiple jobholding-concurrently performing more than one job-and spend time enacting their professional identities each day. In accordance with self-consistency theory, scholars have emphasized that having to act out more than one professional identity promotes a fragmented sense of self for multiple jobholders, which impedes the meaningfulness of their work. However, we assert that this prevailing view about self-inconsistency is incomplete and problematic because it overlooks consideration for how enacting multiple professional identities may be a self-expanding and stimulating experience that satisfies basic needs for growth and exploration. By jointly applying self-expansion theory and self-consistency theory to the day-to-day experience of wearing multiple hats, we unpack how and why enacting multiple professional identities has countervailing implications for work meaningfulness through its effects on stimulation and self-alienation. We also consider the moderating role of identity contrast on these pathways to meaningfulness. We investigate our assertions in a series of preregistered studies-a comprehensive test of our model in a 15-day experience sampling study (Study 1) as well as constructive replications of each stage of our model (Study 2). Overall, we offer novel insights about the day-to-day tension between stimulation and self-alienation for people who act out multiple professional identities and the impact on the meaningfulness of their work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Professional Identity Construction of Novice Translator Trainers in Iran: An Ecological Study

Teacher professional identity, understood as the ways in which teachers perceive themselves as teachers, their professional roles and practices, has received enough scholarly attention in education. However, translator trainer identity is a relatively understudied area in translation studies. Acknowledging this research gap, the paper explores the factors involved in constructing Iranian early career translator trainers’ professional identity using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Data on the experiences of five Iranian translator trainers in their first five years of teaching were gathered through narratives and semi-structured interviews. Using MAXQDA, a qualitative software program, the data were subjected to thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes. Findings revealed that various factors, such as students’ and department expectations, multiple professional identities, socioeconomic issues, educational policies, and the socio-cultural context, negatively or positively (re)shape translator trainers’ identity, affecting their professional development and performance. The paper concludes by arguing that training programs should provide prospective trainers with practical experiences and individual and group reflection to prepare them for the complexities of university teaching and help them develop a positive and effective professional identity.

Double the degree, double the identity? Identification and experiences of students studying two simultaneous degrees

This study investigates the impact of studying two degree programs on students’ identity formation and experiences within the evolving landscape of higher education, characterized by massification and managerial trends in the context of a weak economy. I use a narrative analysis of interviews with 14 Colombian students enrolled in joint-degree programs at an elite private university. I found that students tend to focus their identity development within a single program of study, contrary to the promise of broader identity multiplicity envisioned by the university's joint degree policy: 8 students ended up building their professional identities primarily within one program of study, three students had not developed any, and only one student developed two professional identities. Second, the intensive demands of these programs appear to prioritize the identity of a joint degree student, relegating alternative social and ego identities due to limited socialization opportunities. Third, the conflicted process of identity formation is frequently laden with frustration from unmet expectations, feelings of overload or under-stimulation, and isolation from peers. In conclusion, universities’ promises to enhance career paths and professional identities through joint degree programs may be decoupled from students who do not double their professional identities and horizons. This finding has implications for the theorization of professional identification. As students mature, they often prioritize career opportunities within a program over dual or multiple professional identities. Building multiple professional identities at the university is often unrealistic, and when it does occur, it may be at the expense of subordinating other social and ego identities. Finally, universities offering joint degrees could use these theoretical reflections and empirical findings on identity formation and student experiences that are consistent with our knowledge of the complexity of professional identity formation and the plausibility that this complexity is amplified by the addition of another program of study.

Constructing biology education research identities: a duoethnography

An emerging theme that has gained traction across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms in recent decades is acknowledgingwhois responsible for the discoveries and content that we teach. Centering the human aspect of who the researchers are and how their identities intersect with perspectives in research impacts the lens through which the work is done but also shapes the community of practice in our classrooms and the evolving ecosystem of research communities that contribute to STEM education. In particular, discipline-based education research (DBER) is an emerging interdisciplinary field aimed at understanding and improving discipline-specific learning and teaching. Entering and establishing oneself in a new research field can be a daunting process. For many DBER scholars who began their careers in another discipline, their career trajectories have necessitated this challenge. Here, we focus on our experiences in Biology Education Research (BER). We use duoethnography to explore our overlapping trajectories into and engagements with BER, allowing for the juxtaposition of our experiences to give meanings to and build new understandings of our pathways in BER, which include entry points, reasons for persistence, and identity navigation. Through collaborative reflections, we formulated novel insights that we experienced BER as a community of practice that values the participation of emerging scholars and arrived at a transformed understanding that our educator identities were important driving factors for our continuing pursuit of BER. Results from this duoethnography not only provide insights into how BER faculty may navigate multiple professional identities but can also shed light on potential opportunities and challenges for research and practice partnerships connecting science and education faculty where such identities reside not in single individuals but with multiple persons in a cross-disciplinary collaboration. We see parallels between this work considering faculty identity and pathways into BER with work considering student identity and pathways into STEM, and we hope that these results also highlight the value of utilizing qualitative methodologies that may be novel to both the BER and more broadly, DBER, communities as a tool for centering the human experience that can spark future work and applications within STEM education.

An occupational therapist’s heuristic self-inquiry using the El Duende One-Canvas Process Painting to explore one’s emerging art therapist identity

Today, it is increasingly likely that art therapy trainees would need to navigate multiple professional identities, which can be challenging for the professional development of their art therapist identity. This heuristic self-inquiry aims to address the gap in literature by exploring the experience of navigating multiple professional identities from the perspective of an occupational therapist/art therapy trainee from the Asia-Pacific region. Data was collected through the researcher’s use of written and art-based journalling, including the use of the El Duende one-canvas process painting (EDPP). The six layers of the EDPP reflected the changes and tensions within the researcher’s views of professional identity over time and highlighted the need to examine the artist identity in conjunction with the emerging art therapist identity. Implications for strengthening the artist-art therapist identity through ongoing reflective artmaking practice are discussed.

Understanding ESL Preservice Teachers’ Metaphorical Epistemology in the Teaching Practicum Context

This study examined twenty English as Second Language (ESL) preservice teachers’ learning-to-teach experiences amid the teaching practicums from the perspectives of social realist theory and practice architectures in the US. Through iterative discourse analysis and constant-comparative approach, this paper reveals four aspects of the participants’ metaphorical epistemology. First, the participants developed the constructivist metaphorical epistemology on ESL teaching by grappling with the emergent properties and practice architectures. Second, the participants’ metaphorical epistemology changed from pre-reflection and surface reflection to pedagogical reflection. Third, the participants modeled the reflective disposition by activating their personal emergent properties and tackling the social-political arrangements. Fourth, the participants’ metaphorical epistemology predominantly focuses on their pedagogical reasoning and negotiation of their multiple professional identities. Implications for facilitating ESL preservice teachers’ metaphorical epistemologies in the teaching practicum context are discussed.

Corporate opinion leadership on professional social media

PurposeThis study investigates online corporate opinion leadership on professional social media from two different perspectives: first, how corporate opinion leadership indicated by corporate followers is related to company revenue and second, what are the drivers and mediators of corporate opinion leadership?Design/methodology/approachThe authors randomly selected more than 300 companies with active profiles on LinkedIn from the S&P 500 list and then collected data on corporate followers as an indicator of corporate opinion leadership and revenue during a year. Moreover, the authors collected daily information on content generated by companies, users, and employees such as job posts, users' reactions to posts, and employee profiles during a 44-day period, which allowed the authors to apply panel estimation techniques to estimate the determinants of corporate opinion leadership.FindingsThe estimation results reveal that corporate opinion leadership and business revenue are positively and significantly correlated. Furthermore, after controlling for firm fixed effects and endogeneity, the authors show that corporate, user and employee-generated content (mediated by groups and skills) have a significant impact on corporate opinion leadership.Practical implicationsIndividual online opinion leaders are currently paying considerable attention to practitioners. However, professional networking platforms have also created an opportunity to establish corporate opinion leaders who may play an important role in business. The study provides useful and practical insights on the activities that companies can undertake to develop corporate opinion leadership.Originality/valueThis study seeks to expand previous research on opinion leadership with a focus on the corporate dimension, which is increasingly visible on professional networking platforms. Contrary to former research that collected data on perceived opinion leadership, the authors obtained data directly from LinkedIn. Moreover, the authors contribute to signaling and social identity theories by exploring how professional networking platforms constitute an environment for signaling and developing multiple professional identities.

Collaborator, applied linguist, academic, expense? Exploring the professional identities of academic language and learning professionals

ABSTRACT The complex role of academic language and learning (ALL) professionals in higher education is poorly understood, even though it contributes to key outcomes such as improved study skills, academic language enhancement, curriculum development and student retention. In this paper, we explore the multiple professional identities of people working in this field. Ten ALL practitioners employed in Australian universities took part in semi-structured interviews exploring their roles and the contextual constraints and affordances of their work. We elaborate on eight discrete subject positions that emerged from the participants’ data: the collaborator, the relationship manager, the applied linguist, the teacher, the content (non) expert, the academic, the strategist, and the expense. We draw on a critical realist frame to articulate the interplay between structure and individual agency within these identities, highlighting the range of expertise that ALL practitioners bring to the role.

Student pharmacists' perceptions of their professional identity

IntroductionProfessional identity describes the internal feeling of belonging to a community, such that someone “thinks, feels, and acts” like a member of a profession. Clear professional identity formation can improve the transition from school to work. However, there is limited knowledge about student pharmacists' perceptions of their professional identity. This research aimed to identify and compare student pharmacists' perceptions of their professional identity and to compare those perceptions across class cohorts. MethodsData were collected using an online questionnaire that incorporated professional identity labels drawn from previous research. The questionnaire was administered over four weeks to all student pharmacists at one United States pharmacy school. Data were analyzed using chi-square tests. ResultsOne hundred sixteen responses were received (24% response rate) from the four graduating class years (2020−2023). Respondents were predominantly female (73%), Caucasian (43%), and had obtained at least a bachelor's degree (58%). “Medicine Adviser” was the most frequently selected professional identity (38%). “Business Person” was the least frequently selected professional identity (0%). There was no relationship between professional identities and cohorts of students. ConclusionsStudent pharmacists in this study selected multiple professional identities, suggesting pharmacy students and the profession have yet to consolidate their own identity. There was no relationship between student pharmacists' professional identity selections and cohort, suggesting that professional identity formation did not change as a result of moving through the didactic curriculum. Additional training, curricular modification, and faculty support may be warranted to support student pharmacists with their professional identity development.

A Gyopo English Teacher’s Professional Identity in an EFL Context

There is a growing research interest in language teachers’ professional identity. Nevertheless, unlike studies involving the identity of native and non-native English-speaking teachers, few studies analyzed Gyopo English teachers’ identity despite a sizeable body of Gyopo teachers in the Korean educational context. Using post-structural perspectives of identity, this case study analyzed the identities of a Gyopo instructor as an English teacher and how such identities were reflected in classroom practice. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and self-reflective reports written by the participant. Findings reveal that the participant constructed multiple professional identities as a teacher with previous language learning experiences, a bridge-builder, a multitasker, and a teacher who is not a native English speaker but an American, and a replaceable person. While experiencing identity conflicts, she constantly negotiated and renegotiated her multiple, contradictory identities to position herself more favorably. Based on these findings, the present study offers pedagogical suggestions.

Understanding a STEM teacher\u2019s emotions and professional identities: a three-year longitudinal case study

BackgroundTeacher emotions are sometimes underplayed in the research field of teaching and teacher education. Also, teachers often undergo transformations in their professional identities during education reforms. However, very few studies explore the connections between teacher emotions and their professional identities against the background of education reforms, especially in Asian contexts. There is an increasing emphasis on STEM as an education reform in China and the world, and a deep understanding of STEM teacher emotions and professional identities is necessary in the fast development of STEM education. This study examined how a STEM teacher emotionally constructed her professional identities under the STEM education reform.MethodsThis is a 3-year longitudinal case study employing a narrative inquiry approach with one STEM teacher in China. Data collection included one in-depth, semi-structured interview, three conversations, personal emotional diaries, and correspondence records. A four-step data analysis was conducted.ResultsThree major themes reflecting the participant’s emotional professional identities emerged, including “an interested but confused learner”, “an enthusiastic but nervous explorer”, and “an excited but unsatisfied mentor”. In the participant’s experiences as a learner, explorer, and mentor, positive and negative emotions were always intertwined. These helped construct and shape her professional identities and encouraged her to be the best STEM teacher that she could be.ConclusionThis study provides a series of vivid and dynamic pictures of a STEM teacher’s emotions and professional identities against the background of STEM education reform in China from a 3-year longitudinal perspective. It also indicates the personal, social, cultural, and contextual factors that could have strong effects on teachers’ emotional experiences and the construction of professional identities. Furthermore, this study reveals that three processes (i.e., the process of education changes, the process of creating new or multiple professional identities, and the generation process of teacher emotions) could be intertwined and developed together.

Embedding Identity and How Clinical Teachers Reconcile Their Multiple Professional Identities to Meet Overlapping Demands at Work

Phenomenon Clinical teachers perform overlapping tasks in education and patient care. They are therefore expected to juggle many professional identities such as educator and clinician. Yet little is known about how clinical teachers negotiate their professional identities. The present research examined the lived experiences of clinical teachers as they manage and make sense of their professional identities in the context of a faculty development program. Approach This study adopted interpretative phenomenological analysis, which is an idiographic and inductive methodological approach that enables an in-depth examination of how people conceptualize their personal and social worlds. In-depth semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six purposively sampled Brazilian clinical teachers who were attending a faculty development program. Each participant’s lived experience was analyzed independently. Then, these individual analyses were compared against each other to identify convergence and divergence. Findings Participants recognized one identity, which was labeled as embedding identity, containing other identities and roles. Participants integrated their professional identities in agreement with their personal identities, values, and beliefs, striving thus for identity consonance. Participants understood their craft as a relational process by which they wove themselves into their context and entangled their experience with that of others. They, however, diverged when recognizing who their peers were; whereas some named a single professional group (i.e., family physicians), others had a more comprehensive view and considered as peers healthcare professionals, students, and even patients. Finally, participants identified time constraints and lower prestige of family medicine as a medical discipline vis-à-vis other specialties as challenges posed by their contexts. Insights Clinical teachers have multifaceted identities, to which they give a sense, manage, and integrate into their daily practice. Participants recognized an embedding identity and looked for common points between the identities it contained, which allowed them to meaningfully reconcile the different demands from their overlapping professional identities. Thus, this research introduces the notion of embedding identity as a strategy to make sense of many professional identities. Variability in the embedding identities depicted in this investigation suggests the fluid and contextualized character of professional identity development. How participants saw themselves also influenced how they behaved and interacted with others accordingly. Understanding clinical teacher identity development enriches current perspectives of what it is like to be one of these medical professionals. Faculty development programs ought to consider these perspectives to better support clinical teachers in meeting the overlapping demands in education and patient care.

Learning in Faculty Development: The Role of Social Networks

Faculty development is increasingly acknowledged as an important aspect of health professions education. Its conceptualization has evolved from an individual skills training activity to contemporary notions that draw on an organizational model. This organizational model recognizes relationships and networks as important mediators of knowledge mobilization. Although such conceptual advancements are critical, we lack empirical evidence and robust insights into how social networks function to shape learning in faculty development. The purpose of this study was to understand how informal professional social networks influence faculty development learning in the health professions. This study used a qualitative social network approach to explore how teaching faculty's relationships influenced their learning about teaching. The study was conducted in 2018 in an undergraduate course at a Canadian medical school. Eleven faculty participants were recruited, and 3 methods of data collection were employed: semistructured interviews, participant-drawn sociograms, and demographic questionnaires. The social networks of faculty participants influenced their learning about teaching in the following 4 dimensions: enabling and mobilizing knowledge acquisition, shaping identity formation, expressing vulnerability, and scaffolding learning. Faculty developers should consider faculty's degree of social embeddedness in their professional social networks, as our study suggests this may influence their learning about teaching. The findings align with recent calls to conceptually reorient faculty development in the health professions as a dynamic social enterprise.

Becoming outstanding educators: What do they say contributed to success?

Aspiring medical educators and their advisors often lack clarity about career paths. To provide guidance to faculty pursuing careers as educators, we sought to explore perceived factors that contributed to the career development of outstanding medical educators. Using a thematic analysis, investigators at two institutions interviewed 39 full or associate professor physician faculty with prominent roles as medical educators in 2016. The social cognitive career theory (SCCT) informed the interview guide. Investigators developed the codebook and performed iterative analysis using qualitative methods. Extensive team discussion generated the final themes. Eight themes emerged related to preparation, early successes, mentors, networks, faculty development, balance, work environment, and multiple identities. Preparation led to early successes, which served as "launch points," while mentors, networks, and faculty development programs served as career accelerators to open more opportunities, and a supportive work environment was an additional enabler of this pathway. Educators who reported balance between work and outside interests described boundary setting as well as selectively choosing new opportunities to establish boundaries in mid-career. Participants described multiple professional identities, and clinician and educator identities tended to merge and reinforce each other as careers progressed. This study revealed common themes describing trajectories of success among medical educators. These themes aligned with the SCCT, and typically replayed and spiraled over the course of the educators' careers. These findings resonate with other studies, lending credence to an approach to career development that can be shared with junior faculty who are exploring careers in medical education.

Research Ethics: Deontological Perspectives

The training of Further Education teachers has been debated since the incorporation of Further Education colleges in the UK in 1992 but, to date, moves by governments and their agencies to professionalise the FE teaching sector have been unsuccessful. The continuation of a homogenous initial teacher training programme within the FE sector has resulted in this sector failing to respond to the changing needs of society and the complex needs of the new FE teacher. This study explored the FE teacher training programme within one college in the UK. The research questions focussed on four elements: the concept of professionalism in FE teaching, the FE teacher as an agent of change, the changing professional identity of the participants and the ways new FE teachers managed multiple professional identities.
 Using a case study approach, twenty-two new FE teachers undertaking the initial teacher training programme participated in the research as they took on their new professional role as FE teachers. The project used mixed methods of data collection including self-completion questionnaires, focus groups, observations and semi-structured interviews.
 Thematic content analysis identified that the FE teachers experienced changing and multiple professional identities, from vocational experts to qualified educators, whilst retaining elements of their previous professional identities. Through this process of change, new FE teachers acted as change agents and helped FE students realise their own aspirations.
 This research demonstrates that Further Education teaching can be categorised into three distinct areas based on the subjects taught: the vocational teacher, the professional teacher, and the academic teacher. Teachers from each area require a different focus in their initial teacher training. The study identifies the need for different approaches to Further Education initial teacher training for the three areas and offers opportunities to develop distinct teaching qualifications and career pathways whilst capturing the generic sociological aspects of FE teaching.

Undergraduate students’ strategies for negotiating emerging performer and teacher identities

Nowadays, instrumental undergraduate students must often negotiate their emerging performer and teacher identities, and the results of this process affect the way they later balance their professional and personal life and their ability to sustain lifelong involvement in music. Drawing from recent sociological studies on bicultural identity integration, this study addresses two research questions: What strategies do undergraduate students adopt for negotiating both professional identities? And what are the characteristics of each strategy?One hundred and twenty-one undergraduate performance students participated in this study. Using cluster analysis, a typology of eight strategies for negotiating performer and teacher identities was developed: moratorium, diffusion, dichotomy, involvement with narrow vision, performers who happen to teach, assimilation or unwilling teacher dominance, quasi-integration and integration. These categories are characterized by students’ level of personal commitment, involvement, perceived freedom, breadth and accuracy of the professional image, and personal and social professional recognition.The strategies unfolded and described in this study could be useful for students who want to reflect on new ways of negotiating multiple professional identities and for researchers involved in musicians’ identity-building research.

Multiple professional identities: A personal exploration of the transition from nurse to lecturer

The communities of practice model has been used as a framework to highlight personal and professional development. This reflective account explores the transition from NHS employee to university lecturer in a higher educational institution.

The Influence of Situated and Experiential Music Education in Teacher-Practitioner Formation: An Autoethnography

This study explores how my musical background, teaching and performance skills, understandings, and knowledge acquired from both formal and informal influence has shaped myself as musician, teacher and researcher. The study reveals various learning cultures and social networks that frame my multiple professional identities that have themselves developed from my understandings of being a performer, an educator and researcher. This study explores three aspects to my being: personal identity, professional identity and my perception of the impact this has on my students through my teaching and performing. An autoethnographical method is used to investigate my background that is initially formed by the different modes of music education I received. The study reveals significant influences and formative experiences that impact knowledge and skill accumulation, shaping what informs my own practice as a musician, teacher and researcher. It reveals ongoing exploration, reflection and personal negotiations in maintaining ones’ development of performance and personal creative processes, whilst functioning as a facilitator and educator to others. This study offers insights into how cultural backgrounds, social contexts, teachers and peers influence others.

Accessing the World

Adult educators are often part-time workers or volunteers and, as such, they must simultaneously negotiate multiple professional identities. This negotiation process may trigger conflict among professional identities, which can provide an opportunity for transformational learning. In this case study, the authors explore this conflict and learning through interviews with five female adult secondary educators. The authors use thematic analysis and metaphor analysis to explore participants’ narratives of professional identity. Each participant narrates her unique professional situation with what the authors call metaphorical improvisation, creating new metaphors or using old metaphors in new ways. Moreover, all participants use metaphors of space and boundaries to narrate themselves as providing educational “access” for their students.