Developing a Critical Professional Identity

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss the formation of critical professional identity through practice-based education (PBE). We use PBE as the umbrella term to describe a set of educational work-integrated practices that emphasise a situated and contextualised approach to professional education in universities. We argue that it is imperative to explore identity when becoming a professional, because it enhances the professional socialisation process and strengthens agency in practice. Our key contentions are that critical identity formation should play an explicit role in PBE, because it interweaves the individual with the social, the personal with the professional and the local with the global; and it enables students to become practitioners with a sense of self and purpose both as members of a given community and as global citizens.