To build professional identity through writing
Text & interview study
In the project we investigate texts written in the personal and professional development course from the social work education department at Uppsala University. Students are trained in specific generic skills and approaches required in social work. Different pedagogical tools, such as keeping a logbook in which students can reflect on different course elements, are used to support the learning and development process. The material consists of 489 texts written by three different student groups (collected at the start of 2018), as well as complementary material in the form of focus group interviews at the end of 2020.
Details
- Period: 2018-01-01 – 2022-12-20
Description
The aim of the project is to explore what distinguishes these texts regarding construction and manifested writer identity, and secondly to map the students’ attitudes towards them, as well as mapping what picture of the future profession is portrayed in the text and interviews. The project has two main areas of interest:
What are the characteristics of the texts from the personal and professional development course?
What picture of social work and the future profession emerge in the students’ texts and in the focus group interviews?
Part 1: Texts
Question one is explored through systematic analysis of the students’ texts. There are up to six texts written during the different semesters, which makes it possible to track general patterns such as individual progression. The analysis of the students’ texts concerns itself with four aspects:
How the students’ texts give answers to the instructions given.
What structure they have (disposition).
What writer identity emerges.
What knowledge integration is made.
The analysis utilizes theories and methods from linguistics and to some extent educational sociology.
The focus group interviews contribute to this part of the project by putting the results into perspective, by letting the students’ experiences with writing weigh in. These kinds of retrospective interviews have, in previous research, provided an interesting spotlight on how newly educated sociologists view the influence of reflection writing in their education.
Part 2: Social work students’ views on social work, education and practice
Question 2 is also explored through an analysis of the texts in combination with the focus group interviews. The analysis ties into the questions that were asked in part 1, for example the question regarding the bridging to professional identity. However, a larger emphasis is placed on the content of the texts − which themes the students choose to highlight and how they represent them. What’s being investigated are social work students’ learning experiences from developing their writing, how they define social work, and their experiences of the personal and professional development course for building a professional identity.
Analysis of the student texts and the focus groups investigate:
How the students conceptualize social work and their future role as a social worker
Which aspects of the role they choose to highlight and discuss
How they tie together approaches with, for example, questions regarding power
The analysis utilizes theories and methods from discourse theory, as well as research regarding academization of social work, social work professionalization, and work life.
The project is intended to result in a report that will be useful to develop the personal and professional development course, but also the education. An important motive for the project is to build a foundation to develop the personal and professional development course and to give the students opportunity to strengthen their professional development. The project also intends to provide knowledge that may be useful to develop the academic writing within the sociology programme. We are also counting on being able to use parts of the findings for conference presentations and scientific publications (national or international).