Social Interaction and Professional Identity in Allied Healthcare Education

Analyses how professional identity is negotiated through social interaction in allied healthcare education and practice.

This book considers social interaction as both the means and conduit for professional identity development in Allied Healthcare Professional (AHCP) teaching and learning contexts, from the classroom to the clinic room and beyond. Concepts and contexts within AHCP education are presented before empirical data are discussed. Drawing on qualitative data from allied healthcare students and professionals within predominantly the disciplines of speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, arguments are made for the recognition of social interaction as an explicit process integral to education in this healthcare sphere, yet often taken for granted or deemed a mere by-product of day-to-day activities in teaching and learning. Failing to recognise the value and force of social interaction in such contexts is detrimental to the development of discipline-specific and discipline-generic ways of honing a professional identity, as individuals both reflect upon and navigate the trajectory of their student and professional pathways.