Department of Psychology, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK.
University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK.
J Foot Ankle Res. 2023 Aug 19;16(1):51. doi: 10.1186/s13047-023-00652-w.
Undergraduate podiatry degrees are designed to enable students to become professional podiatrists. To be successful students must manage academic and practical activity to ultimately acquire a professional identity. Little is known about the practices and processes which underpin the acquisition of a professional podiatry identity. It is the aim of this paper to begin to address this absence of knowledge. Community of Practice theory, arguably the dominant contemporary learning theory, represents identity shift as an interaction of imagination, engagement and alignment which enables students to successfully participate in higher education, and ultimately, the professional context. This success is underpinned through assisting students to develop an enabling identity in their learning and doing.
Here we present findings that emerged from a yearlong ethnography in a successful higher education podiatry department. The project followed students and staff in the classroom and the clinic and explored their experiences through interviews.
The findings suggest that the journey to professional identity is facilitated through meaningful learning relationships between staff and students and clarity around professional practices. Here we discuss how those relationships form and enable undergraduates to become podiatrists.
Our findings offer a model for the transition from student to professional and highlight the importance of relationship and experience in becoming a podiatrist. There is a paucity of research around not only podiatry but also other allied health professions around this topic and given the increasing emphasis around employability skills in HE, more research in a range of contexts is needed.
本科足病学学位旨在使学生成为专业足病医生。要想成功，学生必须管理学术和实践活动，最终获得专业身份。对于支撑专业足病学身份获得的实践和过程，我们知之甚少。本文旨在探讨这一知识空白。实践社区理论可以说是当前占主导地位的学习理论，它将身份转变视为一种想象、参与和协调的互动，使学生能够成功地参与高等教育，并最终参与专业环境。通过帮助学生在学习和实践中发展出一种支持性的身份，这种成功得以实现。
我们在这里展示了一项为期一年的成功高等教育足病学部的民族志研究中出现的研究结果。该项目在课堂和诊所中跟踪学生和教职员工，并通过访谈探索他们的经历。
研究结果表明，通过教职员工和学生之间有意义的学习关系以及对专业实践的清晰认识，有助于专业身份的形成。在这里，我们讨论了这些关系是如何形成的，以及如何使本科生成为足病医生。
我们的研究结果为从学生到专业人士的过渡提供了一个模型，并强调了在成为足病医生过程中关系和经验的重要性。不仅在足病学领域，而且在其他相关健康专业领域，关于这个主题的研究都很少，考虑到高等教育中对就业技能的重视程度越来越高，在各种背景下需要进行更多的研究。
