Conceptualising Professional Identity

This chapter presents the conceptualisation of professional identity. By drawing on research in communities of practice, professional socialisation, discourse, identity, indexicality, and business genre knowledge, professional identity is viewed as emergent in participatory learning in communities of practice. It is also seen as involving the dual process of acquiring semiotic resources and experiences for performing a social role as well as undergoing changes in the perception of self in relation to the social role. It is described with reference to four constituting factors, which are professional goal, values and perspective on international business professionals, technical competence, and discursive competence. It is co-constructed in discursive practices with genre knowledge as the indexing resource. These understandings are incorporated into a working definition of professional identity to guide the study this book reports on.