Johan Fagerberg: Den ideal(istisk)a byråkraten: En etnografisk studie om professionell socialisering under socionomutbildning

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the professional socialization of social work students. Through ethnographic, yo-yo fieldwork with a group of students in one class, it seeks to offer a window into students’ experiences of becoming social workers. The empirical material consists of field observations on campus and digitally on Zoom, as well as interviews. The field work targeted the first, beginning of the third, end of the fourth, and the fifth semester, out of seven semesters in total. A total of 25 interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of students on three occasions during their education. The research design facilitated an understanding of the socialization process as it unfolded over time.

Grounded in symbolic interactionism, the dissertation develops a theoretical framework which sees socialization as the construction of frames and laminations through identity resources. Frames and their laminations, i.e. extra layers of interpretation, provide norms, channel attention and guide boundary work. 

The dissertation describes four analytical phases of the socialization process: start, orientation, ambivalence, and practice. In the start phase, students constructed a helping frame to make-sense of social work. It had an individual lamination, meaning they were interested in helping people through meaningful relations. Over time, they developed a bureaucratic frame with which they saw social work as a bureaucratic practice. These frames were laminated with extra layers of interpretation that contributed to students’ ability to act as social workers. They formed a social scientific, a behavioral scientific, an emotional, and a connective lamination.

The analysis illustrates that social work students formed a professional identity characterized by three aspects. Double ambivalence refers to a need to navigate contradicting norms that stem from the helping and bureaucratic frames, as well as having to handle complex situations. Second, students seem to develop an epistemological humbleness. They could emphasize a need to consider the complexity of problems, as well as the value of taking others' perspective, both that of the person they wanted to help and that of other professionals. Third, students formed an identity which can be characterized as a professional underdog. They seemed to become increasingly aware of professional hierarchies, and could perceive the social worker’s position to be that of a challenger to dominating knowledge claims. The concept of professional underdog also denotes how students gained knowledge of organizational contexts that could make helping difficult. Lastly, this concept aims to capture how students wanted to help vulnerable individuals and groups.