ABSTRACT
Professional and professionalism are not simply neutral, descriptive terms but are value laden and strongly contested. Wilding’s (1982) critique represents professions as controlling and legitimising structures, operating in the interests of members of the particular professional group. Alternatively, professionalism can be understood as representing ‘competence and [a] collective service ideal’ (Airaksinen 1994:1). We use the term professionalism in Friedson’s (1986) sense, referring to a set of occupational practices, and by extension attitudes and beliefs. These practices, attitudes and beliefs form the common bond for a community of practitioners who also share a body of knowledge. However, neither the particular
knowledge, nor the practices which spring from that knowledge, are fixed and unchanging. Recognition of the dynamic nature of the relationship between these elements is vital to an understanding of professionalism in youth work.
