Personal Professionalism: the students' perspective
Sarah Campbell
Personal Professionalism Student Guide
Synopsis
This chapter considers what personal professionalism means to students and how to be effective at work. Accounts of the meaning of personal professionalism and what this might look like were gathered from students. These were analysed to draw out the characteristics that students believed embodied professionalism as a result of their experiences of work. Various themes emerged, capturing aspects of professionalism important to students. What was prominent in accounts is the idea that professionalism is not about the role, but the approach to that role. Students believed professionalism is characterised by certain conduct and behaviour, underpinned by values and attitudes. Students recognised the importance of bringing and maintaining self into the role and internalising professionalism is essential. Beale’s (2010) model of professionalism is used as a comparative framework to evaluate student accounts of personal professionalism. These accounts demonstrate the importance of exposing students to professional environments, and the educational value of encouraging them to reflect in a systematic and structured way, on their own conceptions of professionalism. The insights contained within these accounts also demonstrate the value of educational experiences that enable students to participate in professional work environments so that they can develop these understandings alongside their academic development.
Presentation of the results