Professional Identity and Self-Concept of Estonian Social Workers

After decades of forced interruption the social work profession development started again in 1990's. Since then social work is a rapidly developing profession in Estonian society. Now, when there is more than fifteen years of work practice, professional development and academic teaching, it is time to research how social workers experience self- development and development of social work profession. The present research is descriptive multi-strategy research, where the first part of the research is survey type and the second part is based on theme interviews and covers the conceptions of social workers about their development to professional social workers and development of the social work profession in Estonian society. Survey results show that social workers' and social work students' self-concept components are empathy, innovativeness, self-confidence and need of achievement. These self-identity components are extremely suitable for shaping the social workers professional identity. Professional-self of social workers is characterized by commitment to work, professional growth, willingness to take risk and ability to cooperate.