Becoming a Professional: Experimenting with Possible Selves in Professional Preparation

Entering professional practice requires that novices construct identities that fit into that world; part of the role of professional education is to help novices craft these professional identities. During the transitional time represented by professional education, students negotiate their images of themselves as professionals with the images reflected to them by their programs. This process of negotiation can be fraught with difficulty, especially when these images conflict. As they adapt to new roles, novices must also learn to negotiate their personal identity with the professional role, even as they navigate among the different images of professional identity offered by their programs and practitioners in the field. In this article the authors draw on the work of Hazel Markus and others on the development of possible selves to investigate the opportunities novices have to encounter, try out, and evaluate possible selves in the process of constructing professional identities. The authors use data from a study of the preparation of teachers, clergy, and clinical psychologists to illustrate the relationship of possible selves and professional identity, and the role that professional education might play in supporting the development of professional identity.