Education Commons^™

Human Services Identity Development: Exploration Of Student Perceptions, Narketta Sparkman-Key, Anthony J. Vajda, Ne'shaun J. Borden

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Helping students to develop a strong professional identity is an essential function of human services education. The literature on professional identity development shows that new professionals have long term success when they feel connected to the profession and are competent in their ability to perform their assigned roles and duties. Although there is a large body of literature related to professional identity development, there are gaps in the literature related to professional identity development among human services professionals. This qualitative study used an exploratory grounded theory approach to learn about professional identity development of senior human services students from a …