"Becoming" a Professional

This book is founded on the idea that becoming is the most useful defining concept for a new professional class whose members understand that development in their working lives is an open-ended, lifelong process of refinement and learning. In a world where being a professional is an increasingly indistinct notion and where better education and technology are challenging professional norms, it is imperative that we no longer think in terms of an exclusive, Anglo-American, knowledge-rich class of workers. Exploring the implications of this insight for professions including nursing, teaching, social work, engineering and the clergy, this volume aims to encourage informed debate on what it means to be a professional in this globalised 21st century. The book argues that becoming a professional is a lifelong process in which individual professional identities are constructed through formal education, workplace interactions and popular culture. The book advocates the ongoingness of developing a professional self throughout ones professional life. What emerges is a concept of becoming a professional different from the isolated, rugged, individualistic approach to traditional professional practice as represented in popular culture. It is a book for the reflective professional.