What Do We Know about the Professional Socialization of Our Students?

The purpose of this article is to present and characterize the empirical literature that relates to the professional socialization of social work students and then contrast it with some of the early medical and nursing studies in this area. This article argues that unlike the professional socialization studies in medicine, nursing, and other disciplines, which benefit from the findings of qualitative, exploratory research, social work frequently reduces the study of a complex process to attitude and value dimensions, without empirical agreement on what those dimensions are or how to best measure them. The prevailing structural functionalist stance adopted by social work researchers excludes a broader framework by which socializing forces and their interplay could be discovered and identified. Implications and recommendations for social work education are noted.

[1]  R. Landau.  Professional Socialization, Ethical Judgment and Decision Making Orientation in Social Work , 1999 .

[2]  D. V. Soest.  Impact of Social Work Education on Student Attitudes and Behavior concerning Oppression , 1996 .

[3]  G. Hamilton.  Self-Awareness in Professional Education , 1954 .

[4]  C. Towle,et al.  The learner in education for the professions , 1954 .

[5]  B. Koerin.  Values in Social Work Education: Implications for Baccalaureate Degree Programs , 1977 .

[6]  B. K. Varley.  Social Work Values , 1968 .

[7]  P. Atkinson,et al.  Socialisation into Teaching: the research which lost its way , 1985 .

[8]  S. Haiman.  Preface: Education and Enticement: A Recruitment Strategy , 1990 .

[9]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School. , 1962 .

[10]  E. Gambrill.  Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards , 2001 .

[11]  M. Knowles.  Innovations in Teaching Styles and Approaches Based upon Adult Learning , 1972 .

[12]  N. Webb.  The Role of the Field Instructor in the Socialization of Students , 1988 .

[13]  W. Shaffir,et al.  Taking on the Role of Doctor: A Dramaturgical Analysis of Professionalization* , 1982 .

[14]  N. C. Frey,et al.  Group Therapy with Schizophrenics , 1973 .

[15]  Stanton Wheeler,et al.  Socialization After Childhood: Two Essays , 1966 .

[16]  J. Pepper,et al.  Conceptual bases of professional nursing , 1985 .

[17]  T. Parsons.  The Social System , 1953 .

[18]  L. Dalgleish,et al.  The impact of social work education: A personal construct reconceptualization , 1986 .

[19]  H. Meltzer.  The Learner in Education for the Professions. , 1957 .

[20]  P. Atkinson.  The Reproduction of the Professional Community , 1983 .

[21]  J. Moran.  Social Work Education and Students' Humanistic Attitudes , 1989 .

[22]  R. Collins.  Four Sociological Traditions , 1994 .

[23]  J. Shuval.  From "boy" to "colleague": processes of role transformation in professional socialization. , 1975, Social science & medicine.

[24]  R. Barbour.  Dealing with the Transsituational Demands of Professional Socialization , 1985 .

[25]  B. K. Varley,et al.  Impact of Social Work Education on Students' Values , 1965 .

[26]  Roy Lubove,et al.  The professional altruist: The emergence of social work as a career , 1965 .

[27]  B. K. Varley.  Socialization in Social Work Education , 1963 .

[28]  C. Pike.  Development of the social work values inventory , 1994 .

[29]  D. Smith.  FROM STUDENT TO NURSE. , 1963, Nursing outlook.

[30]  C. Pike.  Development and Initial Validation of the Social Work Values Inventory , 1996 .

[31]  J. W. Grimm,et al.  Student attitudes toward the poor , 1973 .

[32]  P. Pearson.  The Educational Orientations of Graduate Social Work Faculty. , 1998 .

[33]  Margaret Gibelman Dsw,et al.  Supervision in Social Work , 1998 .

[34]  Robert K. Merton,et al.  The student physician: Introductory studies in the sociology of medical education. , 1958 .

[35]  Y. Enoch.  Change of Values during Socialization for a Profession: An Application of the Marginal Man Theory , 1989 .

[36]  D. N. Noble,et al.  Values: Passing on the Torch without Burning the Runner , 1981 .

[37]  U. Aviram,et al.  Professional preferences of social workers: prestige scales of populations, services and methods in social work , 1991 .

[38]  Eleanor Hannon Judah,et al.  Values: The Uncertain Component in Social Work , 1979 .

[39]  K. Melia,et al.  Student nurses' construction of occupational socialisation. , 1984, Sociology of health & illness.

[40]  R. Merton.  SOME PRELIMINARIES TO A SOCIOLOGY OF MEDICAL EDUCATION , 1957 .

[41]  J. Wodarski,et al.  The Effects of Graduate Social Work Education on Personality, Values and Interpersonal Skills , 1988 .

[42]  Joan M. Merdinger.  Socialization into a Profession: The Case of Undergraduate Social Work Students. , 1982 .

[43]  I. Simpson.  Patterns of Socialization into Professions: The Case of Student Nurses* , 1967 .

[44]  George R. Sharwell.  Can Values Be Taught? A Study of Two Variables Related to Orientation of Social Work Graduate Students Toward Public Dependency , 1974 .

[45]  William J. Goode,et al.  Community Within a Community: The Professions , 1957 .

[46]  A. Cryns.  Social Work Education and Student Ideology: A Multivariate Study of Professional Socialization , 1977 .

[47]  Ronald S Weinstein.  The education of professionals. , 2003, Human pathology.

[48]  M. W. Pumphrey,et al.  : The Professional Altruist: The Emergence of Social Work as a Career, 1880-1930 , 1966 .

[49]  Eleanor Hannon Judah.  Acculturation to the Social Work Profession in Baccalaureate Social Work Education , 1976 .

[50]  M. V. Joseph.  Standing for Values and Ethical Action , 1992 .

[51]  E. Whittaker,et al.  The silent dialogue , 1968 .

[52]  R. Cheloha,et al.  The of a Development , 2004 .

[53]  Donileen R. Loseke,et al.  Actors in Search of a Character: Student Social Workers' Quest for Professional Identity , 1986 .