A journey, not a destination: Emerging professional identities of community work & youth work students

Community work and youth work are distinct but complimentary social professions which share a vision for a values-based practice, rooted in the application of justice, equality and human rights for social change. In Ireland, the professional endorsement of initial tertiary education in community work and youth work began almost two decades ago. Yet little is known about how exactly such programmes foster the professional formation of new practitioners, about how students experience the formation process or how they articulate their professional identity at the point of qualification. Addressing this gap, this article presents the findings of a study which explored students’ perspective (three cohorts, n=75) on their professional formation journey through a Bachelor of Social Science in Community Work and Youth Work in one Irish university. As collaborators in the research, final year students undertook and analysed a narrative style interview with a class peer exploring their learning journey across the programme. This was followed by a collective analysis by the authors which identified key themes in students’ articulation of their professional identity as well as the crucial elements supporting professional formation from students’ perspective. The findings reveal the centrality of critical consciousness raising to the development of professional identity of community workers and youth workers. The findings illustrate how a combination of classroom learning, fieldwork and supervision, theoretical reflection and a focus on ethics and values were key elements in generating students’ professional identity as community workers and youth workers. Furthermore, students articulated a view that their learning journey will continue into and throughout their professional life. This suggests that professional identity formation in community work and youth work is a journey, not a destination.