Professionalism: definitions

5a) Profession (n = 19) Defined as: Underpinned by qualifications Entry regulated by qualifications

Professional body regulation of practice

Society’s recognition

5b) Professional (n = 19)

Dimensions of: High standards of self- presentation not poor self- presentation

Client-centred and ethical not managerial

Expert knowledge not lack of professional value

5c) Professional Identity Most problematic to define with no emerging common dimensions

During the process of analysis, the data from which the sub-categories above emerged became increasingly pertinent for a number of reasons. The first aspect was the strength of feeling expressed by the participants when discussing their perceptions of what a profession, and being professional, meant. More crucially, and in relation to the main theoretical

perspective I have adopted, their narratives indicated the existing knowledge of what a profession, and being professional means: knowledge that they are carrying with them, and indeed bringing to their work and everyday practices. Further, the nuances in their accounts once again indicated both their knowledgeability, both in terms of broader concepts and specific contexts, as well as they ways in which they create meaning that arises out of their experience and day-to-day practices.

160 As with the previous two tables, I have grouped the responses by organisational context, to show the ways in which responses may reflect the latter, as well as sharing commonalities.

In response to the question of what constituted a profession, those from school-based contexts reflected issues of esteem and status; qualifications; and a role with credibility. Participant L – who had pointed out to her clients the value of professional qualifications to their future development – focussed on matters of status and the role of higher level

qualifications in defining a profession: ‘Erm, a high level career, something without doubt that would expect a degree or higher level qualification.’ Participant M shared this view to some extent, although her answer may reflect in part that she holds the DPA: ‘I tend to think…of somebody who has been to university, has done a degree, like a doctor, or

accountant, or a nurse…though I personally don’t always agree with that view.’ Participants Q and R’s views also covered the idea of holding higher level qualifications, or a job that requires these, as well as the idea that ‘a professional career has a higher level of learning and entry qualifications.’ (Participant R). Participant S – who at the time of the research

interview had thirty-six years’ experience in the profession, and held the DipCG – answered in a way that probably reflected her own commitment to her role: ‘Being dedicated to your specific area of expertise.’ The latter words are interesting: that as well as requiring expertise, a profession also demands dedication to it. This echoes the idea of career as vocation discussed in chapter two: almost that a person is called to service, and should commit to it as a way of being.

Those from further education-based settings expressed views similar to the responses above, but some interesting variations that added to the nuanced view of what a profession means. Participant E, who had actively changed her occupation from HR to careers guidance, was very clear about questions of identify were implicated in notions of the

161 profession: ‘For me, a career means that profession, the job we identify as ours, like, erm…I identify myself as a career guidance practitioner.’ This view links to that expressed by participant S above – that idea of being, and then dedicating yourself to the profession. This, more corporeal idea was reflected in Participant F’s answer: ‘A profession means you are attached to a body, so my thought would be, you are a doctor, or a lawyer, or a nurse, erm…and you are attached to a body like the NMC.’ Her answer also extends the idea of identifying with the concept of the profession – that the latter is also signified by a professional body, and that professions should be part of and attached to it.

Participant J summarised these personal and embodied aspects: ‘Profession, erm…I guess profession means….it sort of means your job, I guess to me it’s what you’ve trained in, erm, and what you are working as…in a way…so you understand your profession.’ The latter phrase was remarkable, in that the concept of profession is not an abstract one, but one that a practitioner understands. Again, this point is consistent with the contentions of my theoretical perspective: that agents are able to grasp relatively general concepts, like profession in this case, and understand them in relation to their training, practice, identity, and sense of being part of a body.

Again, the responses from the higher education-based participants reflect the ideas discussed above, but in addition some views on what jobs would be considered professions, and which would not. Participant B’s answer reflected the blurring of identity and also esteem and status: ‘Just in simple terms, equivalent to your job, er, someone can be a lawyer, a doctor…it is someone who requires a higher level, a higher level professional qualification to do a job.’ When asked if a cleaner, or an electrician, could be called being part of a

profession, she answered: ‘Maybe not.’ For her, the expertise and qualifications needed to be allied to questions of status. Participant C’s forthright and immediate answer zoomed in on the idea of identity and immediately identifiable qualities: ‘A career that has an identity: you

162 instantly know what it is, er, about its purpose.’ This response reflected, in part, the very confident but also very secure sense that she expressed the importance of her role in relation to the organisation’s employability focus. The notion of commitment, and to a vocation, as noted by participant S above, was also noted by participant D: ‘For me, a profession is in simple terms, a profession is the career that a person is committed to…that is, I have made a commitment.’ Again, this is an interesting way of defining a profession, and distinguishing it from a job: that to enter the former, a person needs to commitment themselves, not just in terms of acquiring the higher level qualifications, but in the sense of becoming part of it.

Once again, the participants from adult guidance-based settings expressed their views in terms of required higher level qualifications, status and esteem, but also more in-depth ideas that debated the notion of traditional versus newer professions. Participant A answered in terms of the effects of the development of professional traits in chapter two: ‘Not just your traditional doctors, lawyers, I mean, there have been lots of changes in the education system, so…degrees, professional bodies, professional standing, these are important to a profession.’ This more sophisticated sense of profession in more current contexts was also reflected in participant U’s answer. Having come through a banking and insurance route, his idea of a profession was ‘that it involves a higher qualified status for, like, solicitors, bank managers, banking people, I suppose more as we would term white collar work. People involved in the civil services, so a profession wouldn’t merely be a trade.’

Further, participant T’s ideas moved from those shared by others’ accounts, to notions of equality and diversity, and also a sense almost of resentment at the class associations implicated in the idea of a profession: ‘I think ultimately for me it’s belonging to, ah, an organisation or, erm, a group of individuals who have studied, have worked and are regarded as experts in the particular field.’ His response then shifted, and his facial expression also changed as he became less satisfied with what he just said:

163 ‘These kinds of words are used to try and, erm, and maybe, erm, try and make people sound better than other people, because I regard someone who works in a factory to have a profession, yea? And because everyone has an important role to play.’ One aspect of these participants’ accounts that has been discussed when considering their satisfactions is the sense of commitment to a location: of addressing issues of social exclusion. This commitment was, in part, captured by these words.

Overall for the sub-code, the participants’ accounts reflected common views about the definition of a profession, such as the role of higher level qualifications in signifying its status, as well as insights into the ways in which society constructs certain roles as being of higher status than others. The next sub-code, ‘professional’, indicates the ways in which the participants demonstrate more nuanced understanding of how being professional is different from more abstract conceptions of ‘profession’. This notion of being is significant for the discussion of the data presented in table 5 below.

5.5.3 Views of defining ‘professional’

The idea of personal conduct and manner, as well as ethical standards figured strongly from the five participants from school-based practice. As Participant L answered: ‘You know, relating to professional conduct…you are doing this in a professional way, you know, it’s honest, it’s within the law, all these things.’ Participant M was keen to stress that the idea of being professional wasn’t limited to those from higher status professions: ‘More, that they are professional in the job they are undertaking, I mean, a dustbin man can be very

professional.’ Participant Q sought to combine ideas of behaviour and ethics: ‘Ach, now that’s different (to profession) – it could be anyone working within boundaries, qualities, standards…the way you behave and talk…and the image, maybe, and the element of trust of clients and colleagues.’ Her response covered a number of very interesting aspects very

164 quickly: that being professional meant working within standards and boundaries, and that trust was a key element for her. A further element in the response was image: that the practitioner needed to appear trustworthy and professional in order to help develop clients’ regard for the service.

Ideas of conduct and personal appearance also featured as dimensions in these participants’ accounts from the further education context. Participants E and F were very clear about behaving correctly: ‘It’s how I conduct myself’ (E) and ‘It’s how you choose to behave, even if you are working as a cleaner, which, um, is a vital job, but you know what I mean.’ Again, the responses demonstrated in-depth insights and powerful concepts, as shown by Participant K: ‘It’s how you, it’s about your integrity and professional manner.’ For the latter, the idea of manner proceeding from, and indicating, integrity (or

trustworthiness) links back to the discussions concerning motivation for wanting to enter the profession: to become more authentic in work that integratespersonal values and professional skills to make a difference to clients. As Participant E noted: ‘It’s not just about conducting yourself properly in a business meeting or something.’

For Participant B, being business-like was an important indicator of professionalism in HE-based settings: ‘OK, someone behaving in a business-like way, dressing up smartly, being professional kind of appearance.’ This response reflects in part the HE setting – particularly when working with particular academic departments where business-like appearance are important for credibility – and, to a certain extent, what the participant has carried with her from her previous HR, more corporate role. Whilst she had rejected the managerialism of her previous role, she was still carrying some of the aspects of this into careers guidance. By contrast, Participant C emphasised the client-centred aspects of being professional: ‘I am thinking about codes, and the ethical elements of the job, erm…doing your best for the student…whereas unprofessional would be breaking confidences, and

165 influencing people in the wrong direction.’ In other words, breaking the ethical codes, and particularly trustworthiness. Participant D returned back to her concern for training and commitment: ‘I go back to being a doctor, or a lawyer, or even a cleaner…probably the doctor is more professional…because of the greater commitment to their training.’ These responses, whilst consistent with those from schools and FE, also reflected some of the organisational issues: the need to appear business-like; and perhaps to demonstrate a commitment to becoming qualified that is equal to those from academia. ‘Being

professional’ in these ways is thus a key tactic when seeking to negotiate with academic staff for access to the curriculum, in order to promote employability.

In defining what may be meant by ‘professional’, those from the adult guidance and NCS settings specifically also identified elements of conduct and ethical standards, as

participant A noted: ‘You can be very professional but not part of a profession…it’s how you behave, present yourself, and how you interact with your customers and client, having their best interests at heart.’ This way of behaving but in a client-centred way was shared by participant U: ‘Professional is for me, erm, doing my job, doing my job well, and adhering to the ethics, like the CDI, etc, etc.,’. Participant N’s account extends these considerations, and is interesting because she is now working on a self-employed basis: ‘I would like to be considered professional if I…mmmm…delivering the service, the contract, the work I have agreed to deliver to the client and to the standard we have agreed.’ Her work, however, is not simply driven by what a client specifies in the contract: ‘So I would deliver it (the contract) to the best of my ability, erm, to, you know, abide by the principles of my profession.’ She was very clear that these principles are impartiality, confidentiality, and promoting clients’ decision-making skills – again, linking back to the reasons for entering the profession discussed in relation to category one.

166 5.5.4 Defining professional identity

Finally for this sub-code, most of the participants were more hesitant when asked to define what ‘professional identity’ meant to them. Most of the responses seemed to circle back to aspects they had highlighted when discussing the terms ‘profession’ and

‘professional’; or jumped ahead in the interview schedule, so to speak, by expressing their sense of professional identity. The following quotes from Participants B, C, F, G, L, and U respectively capture some of the ways in which the participants tried to tackle the term:

‘If you feel you are part of a wider community of professionals, so for example, someone who is a doctor, or medical...’

‘Knowing your discipline, and what makes you...what makes you...makes you, erm,..instantly knowing what the area is about, its vision and purpose’

‘I suppose as a careers adviser are we accepted by others, er...would you look at a careers adviser the same way as a teacher and I suspect not...’

‘Personally, to me, it doesn’t mean anything, I’m a person who does a role, interestingly enough, Social Work, after care workers, there’s a bit of snobbery with Social Work...’

‘Professional identity is more about how you feel about your profession and your career...how you see your profession and how it relates to other

professional areas’

‘Well, for me, er, professional identity is being eroded by this (xxx)

167 union, I ‘spose, a professional group, being part of something that stands up for people, gives everyone a fair chance, being impartial’

Some strands emerge here which are similar to those teased out in the other

categories. Firstly, the idea of careers guidance and its professional identity or standing in relation to other professions. Then, the notion of profession and professional identity and how it may seem snobbish or self-protective. Thirdly, professional identity being an

organising concept that may help individuals make sense of their career and profession, and in relation to other occupational areas (perhaps meaning ‘I am this and not that’, or ‘I am this and similar to that but different also’). Finally, the idea of the ways in which policies have eroded the profession and made practitioners much more defined by performance targets or renaming of roles, e.g. employability.

The apparent lack of a commonly expressed definition of professional identity could have undermined the emerging theory: that the identity of careers guidance practitioners rests on the elements of client-centredness, helping others, ethical practice, and professional expertise. However, the consistency of the participants’ narratives and answers in most of their responses suggested that it was the term ‘professional identity’, rather thanthe lack of having or feeling one, that caused the participants the most challenge. My point here is supported and amplified by the following main code: that of ‘making meanings’.

168

5.6 Careers guidance: making meanings

So far, the data presented in the tables 1 to 4 above have explored participants’ motivations for entering the profession; the satisfactions they derive from their role; the central

importance of their qualifications to their sense of identity and role purpose; and their insights into the concepts of the profession and being professional. The data discussed in relation to table 5 below builds on the main codes presented so far to explore the precise and also shared meanings that the participants’ derive from their practice within their organisational context. Table 5: Careers guidance: making meanings

Main code Sub-codes Axials

6. Professionalism: