On becoming an education professional: a psychosocial exploration of developing an educational professional practice

It is claimed that becoming an education professional represents a unique interaction between the past and the present involving an encounter with the processes and structures of education settings. Narratives were collected to provide detailed case studies and analysed using a psychosocial approach connecting psychoanalytic, sociological and critical theory principles. Becoming an education professional is argued to be a process of identity or role formation that requires the expectations and fantasies of the past to be negotiated at the unconscious, individual and social level. A focus on personal agency and dealing with the complexity inherent in education settings highlights the macro and micro negotiations new education professionals are required to undertake between the margins of the personal and professional. By paying attention to ‘education biographies’ a realistic and meaningful approach, which goes beyond the existing ‘standards’ based agenda, is offered to provide a more nuanced model for early professional development.