What is professional identity and how do social workers acquire it?

Professional identity, when linked with the concept of 'professionalism', has become bound up with the regulation of practitioners and the avoidance of 'unprofessional' behavior. Understanding the different meanings and their usage is important for social workers, especially in the face of debate about the nature of social work and how it is best taught and regulated. This chapter discusses these meanings and suggests some ways in which practitioners – especially students and newly qualified workers – develop it. The research, conducted between 2007 and 2010 in England, explored how professional registration affects the way that social work students talk about – and thus construct – their personal and professional identities. Social work regulation was established in 2001, with professional registers operational from 2003. The chapter concludes by highlighting developments which have begun to emerge in the relatively short time since my original research was completed, and which might impact on further studies of professional identity.