Developing Professional Knowledge And Competence
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Developing Professional Knowledge And Competence

Michael Eraut

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eBook - ePub

Developing Professional Knowledge And Competence

Michael Eraut

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About This Book

This volume analyzes different types of knowledge and know-how used by practising professionals in their work and how these different kinds of knowledge are acquired by a combination of learning from books, learning from people and learning from personal experience.; Drawing on various examples, problems addressed include the way theory changes and is personalized in practice, and how individuals form generalizations out of their practice. Eraut considers the meaning of client-centredness and its implications, and to what extent professional knowledge is based on intuition, understanding and learning. He considers the issue of competence versus knowledge and the effect of lifelong learning on the quality of practice.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2002
ISBN
9781135719968
Edition
1

Chapter 1
The Context for Professional Education and Development


Professions, Professionalism and Professionalization

The professions are a group of occupations the boundary of which is illdefined. While the most powerful professions of law and medicine are commonly perceived as the ‘ideal type’, few others even approach their degree of influence. Public-sector professions with significantly less power, such as teachers and nurses, were described by Etzioni (1969) as ‘semi-professions’; but this simply added one further ill-defined category. Several scholars have approached the problem of definition by compiling lists of professional ‘traits’ (Millerson, 1964). Though not without interest, such lists have not solved the problem of definition for three main reasons:

  • Without any clearly argued justification, each list appears to be based on its author’s view of the most salient characteristics of high-status professions.
  • When Hickson and Thomas (1969) applied a list of thirteen commonly agreed traits to forty-three qualifying associations, they found a continuum of scores from 0 to 13 without any clear cut-off points and little evidence of some traits taking precedence over others.
  • Several traits are culturally specific, with greater significance in some countries than others.
Nevertheless, discussion of such traits has drawn attention to those characteristics of the most powerful professions which others seek to emulate; and fuelled the debate between advocates and critics of professional power. Since this debate is most clearly focused around the concept of an ‘ideal type’ profession, we shall follow Johnson’s (1972, 1984) approach and treat ‘professionalism’ as an ideology without attempting to distinguish ‘true’ professions from other contenders. Johnson then goes on to define ‘professionalization’ as the process by which occupations seek to gain status and privilege in accord with that ideology.
Most accounts of the ideology of professionalism follow the functionalist models developed by Goode (1969), Merton (1960) and Parsons (1968) which accord primacy of place to the professional knowledge base. The problem towhich the concept of a profession is said to provide an answer is that of the social control of expertise. Experts are needed to provide services which the recipients are not adequately knowledgeable to evaluate. So how can clients be protected against incompetence, carelessness and exploitation? If state control is unacceptable, as it was when the ideology of professionalism first developed in nineteenth-century Britain and America, then control has to be vested in the experts themselves. Hence the emphasis put by the professions on moral probity, service orientation and codes of conduct. The central assumption of this functionalist model is succinctly summarized by Rueschemeyer (1983):
Individually and, in association, collectively, the professions ‘strike a bargain with society’ in which they exchange competence and integrity against the trust of client and community, relative freedom from lay supervision and interference, protection against unqualified competition as well as substantial remuneration and higher social status. (Rueschemeyer, 1983, p. 41)
The argument for relative freedom from interference is based on unique expertise, moral integrity, confidentiality and protection from political abuse. The protection against unqualified competition is to prevent clients from being deceived when they lack the knowledge to discriminate. The higher social status is probably linked to class-based notions of trustworthiness. However, there have been occasions when it became the cause rather than the effect of joining a profession: social status has affected both recruitment and preferment in many professions; and entry requirements were often arranged to favour those who already had the appropriate social background. Thus professions guarantee the efficacy of their self-regulation by undertaking careful recruitment and training, promulgating codes of ethics and setting up committees to deal with any breaches of these codes.
Against this ideology of professionalism, the conflict sociologists of the 1970s simply reversed most of the arguments, accusing the professions of using the power they derived from their superior knowledge to justify their sheltered market.
According to these sociologists, the strong professional associations, which were established in the age of organized interests to fight for autonomy in all professional questions, exploited their collective power in the market place and prestige in the eye of the public for selfish professional goals. (Siegrist, 1994, p. 5)
Proponents of both the ideology and its counterpart regard expertise as the prime source of professional power and influence, but hold different views about how it is and should be controlled. Empirical studies by historians and sociologists have focused mainly on the older and more prestigious professions,revealing significant changes in systems for controlling them over time and between countries. In particular, as Burrage (1994) points out, the establishment of the older professional associations in Britain preceded the establishment of formal professional education in universities, while in France and the United States periods of deregulation in the nineteenth century led to the reverse process. The foundation of ‘professional schools’ in universities almost always preceded the development of practitioner associations in their current form. This is reflected in Wilensky’s (1964) account of the professionalization process in America.
Occupations such as teachers and social workers have a long history of professionalization in which their number, salary level and social status have constrained their progress. They have had some difficulty in articulating a distinctive knowledge base, and have also suffered from being under much greater government control. Their lack of self-regulation (except in Scotland) had led some to exclude them from the ranks of the professions, but this does not accord with popular opinion.
Less attention, however, has been given to more technically-oriented occupations which have emerged under the control of other professions. For example, the occupations of architectural technician, accountancy technician and engineering technician have developed to undertake the more routine or mechanized aspects of what used to be professional work and require training in higher education which currently stops just short of degree level. But the analogous occupation of medical laboratory scientific officer (the technician title was dropped in 1975) is now regarded by many as having attained professional status. It has a stronger scientific base, operates more independently of its controlling professions (pathologists and haematologists) and now employs a majority of graduates. Much of this development has been very recent but an important milestone was the creation in 1960 of a government Committee for Professions Supplementary to Medicine to oversee the registration of eight health-related professions. This officially recognized MLSO aspirations to professional status but also confirmed their subordination to medicine.
Johnson (1972) interpreted this in terms of the power of physicians to delegate rather than the power of MLSOs to develop their status:
The emergence of a succession of subordinate ‘professions auxiliary to medicine’ in Britain is the history of how physicians have been able to define the scope of new specialised medical roles and cannot be regarded as a hierarchy of semi-professions based upon the inherent potentialities for professionalisation of each occupation, or even as the product of the most rational utilisation of human resources. (Johnson, 1972)
However, this preceded the rise to graduate status of most of the ‘supplementary professions’. Nevertheless Katz’s (1969) comment is still valid today.
The caste-like system puts an unscalable wall between the physician and the semi-professional in the hospital. The legitimacy of the professional guardianship of a body of knowledge depends not only on having a distinct body of knowledge, but also on acceptance of that guardianship by those beyond as well as those within the ranks. In a hospital this means physicians. (Katz, 1969)
Interprofessional relations are strangely absent from accounts of the ideology of professionalism except insofar as that ideology is used to assert the supremacy of the ‘true’ professions over the newcomers. Although doctors have remained firmly in the ascendent in the health sector, power relations in the construction sector have been changing quite rapidly. Traditionally, architects were in charge of building projects and engineers of bridges, etc.; and they employed other professionals such as surveyors, service engineers and builders as subcontractors or consultants. But the increasing financial power of developers and construction companies has redefined interprofessional relationships in larger projects, so that architects are contracted by companies rather than clients and provide services without necessarily assuming any managerial control. In some cases, architecture is ‘little more than just another works package’ (Winch and Schneider, 1993). This raises the question of whether subordination to another profession entails less autonomy than subordination to a manager or a politician. Closer examination of professionals at work suggests that many members of higher-status professions have no greater freedom in these respects.
The ideology of professionalism appears to assume that professionals are self-employed or partners in small practices. However, while many professions retain a minority of self-employed members, very few indeed have a majority of members in such independent forms of employment. Hence ethical codes need to take into account the organizational context of professional work. When the legal relationship is between the client and the organization and the organization employs several professionals in the service of a client, there must be an ethical dimension to the roles, conduct and responsibilities of professional workers which takes this into account (see Chapter 11). On the one hand, attention is given to unethical behaviour by organizations and the risks of professional workers ‘blowing the whistle’, while on the other there is a growing literature on the management of professionals deploring their opposition to organizational procedures which might benefit clients but threaten their own autonomy. In some sectors the managers of professional workers are promoted members of the professions being managed, yet this critical role is not formally recognized by the profession. It would be difficult in those professions which explicitly forbid criticism of fellow members.
Further signs that the traditional ideology of professionalism is becoming outmoded come from the changing attitude of clients. The professional— client relationship is influenced not only by the expertise of the professionalbut also by the pecuniary and social status of the client. Thus it is possible to distinguish between:

  • a relationship of patronage by wealthy and powerful clients, for whom not only expertise but confidentiality and social acceptability are important;
  • a commercial relationship, significantly affected by professional body agreements over fees and restricted competition; and
  • a welfare relationship, in which clients perceived as ‘needy’ receive services funded by the State.
In general, the importance of the clients affects the status of the professional providing the service; and the significance of status hierarchies within professions should not be neglected when studying professional work. But, more important for our purpose is the professional concept of ‘service’ which historically has pervaded relationships with all but the most powerful clients. The traditional ideology of professionalism uses the notion of specialist expertise to justify the assumption that only the professional can determine the real needs of the client. The concept of service was profession-centred rather than clientcentred, and clients did not have the social, pecuniary or intellectual resources to challenge the professional’s definition of the situation.
This position has been increasingly under attack from several directions. Over the last two decades there has been a growing distrust of the supremacy of scientific and technical knowledge. In whose interests is it being used, and to what extent do these interests determine how it is represented and reported? Traditional professional attitudes are perceived as unacceptably patronizing. Monopolies are challenged and professional conduct sometimes seen as self-serving rather than altruistic. The concept of ‘client rights’ has increasingly gained acceptance so that the identification of need is beginning to become a joint endeavour. There are calls for the least powerful clients to be supported by ‘client advocacy’ arrangements. As politicians have sensed these changes in public mood, they have sought to increase the role of government in the regulation of professional work. Concern for both citizens’ rights and the increasing cost of public services has given rise to prominent accountability measures to promote the potentially conflicting aims of efficiency, effectiveness, economy, responsiveness and quality.
Thus the work of the professions can be viewed in terms of several interconnected sets of power relations: with service users, with managers of service-providing organizations, with government, with a range of special interest groups and with other professions. Increasingly, however, all these relationships are being framed by a complex web of state regulation. Cynics might argue that, whereas previously the State sought to protect its citizens from the unqualified practitioner, it now seeks to protect them from the qualified.

Professional Preparation and Higher Education

The occupations now claiming to be professions have employed several modes of training and preparation, often in combination. These include:

  • a period of pupillage or internship, during which students spend a significant amount of time (up to five years) learning their ‘craft’ from an expert;
  • enrolment in a ‘professional college’ outside the higher-education system;
  • a qualifying examination, normally set by a qualifying association for the occupation;
  • a period of relevant study at a college, polytechnic or university leading to a recognized academic qualification; and
  • the collection of evidence of practical competence in the form of a logbook or portfolio.
Each of these modes makes a distinctive contribution to the student’s knowledge base and to his or her socialization into the occupation.
When free of examinations or other forms of assessment, pupillage focuses on the gradual acquisition of craft knowledge through demonstration, practice with feedback and possibly even coaching. It also has a strong influence on the development of standards and values. It keeps occupational knowledge within the ‘guild’, does not require that knowledge to be presented in any publicly available form, and places the least demand of any training approach for explicit articulation of the knowledge base of the ‘pupil master’. The students’ access to training can depend on finding a pupillage or internship and their subsequent career may owe a great deal to the reputation, contacts and patronage of their ‘master’ or mentor. Students may also provide income, cheap labour and ultimately influence.
Professional colleges are of varied character, ranging from a private crammer or correspondence college, to a training organization set up by employers or a school set up by the occupation itself. Since the war many of them have sought validation of their awards by higher education and eventually merged into universities or worked under their aegis, partly to improve the status of their awards and partly in order to receive public money from the local or national-education budget. Such colleges, particularly in their early stages, relied almost entirely on part-time teaching from practising professionals, and focused very specifically on the requirement for entry to the occupation concerned. They might also act as placement agencies for periods of practice or even as employment agencies. According to the occupation the relative significance of the examination and practice-focused components varied; and the greater the practice component the more likely for the school to serve a socializing function rather than become a simple crammer. Colleges outside higher education are unlikely to develop new professional knowledgeor deviate significantly from the occupational regulations; although they will respond vociferously to any proposed changes in the requirements for entering the profession.
Qualifying examinations rose to prominence in the latter half of the nineteenth century, in parallel with, and following, the introduction of examinations for receiving university degrees and for entering the civil service. At the same time they gave considerable power to the occupational organizations which introduced them, which Millerson (1964) therefore described as ‘qualifying associations’. The change simplified entry into the professions and for the first time created national standards for the occupations concerned. These standards were important to maintaining the reputation of competent practitioners which was continually being undermined by underqualified non-members, and occasionally by members whose initial acceptance owed more to their connections than their knowledge. However, most examinations guaranteed only that knowledge they were able to test; and this seldom extended to practical competence. Hence one of the main consequences of their introduction was the transformation of large areas of the professional knowledge base into codified forms which suited the textbooks needed to prepare students for what were from the outset very traditional examinations. Another consequence was the opportunity for the qualifying association to function at a distance, not only nationally but internationally. Many of them developed quite a lucrative business, and income from student registrations and examination fees ensured the financial viability of the qualifying associations.
Examinations have also been an important factor within higher education, affecting how what is learned is selected from what is taught and what is taught is selected from what is known. There is also ample research evidence on the effect of examinations on the learning processes adopted by students (Snyder, 1971; Miller and Parlett, 1974). Universities have had more opportunity to introduce alternative modes of assessment, though changes have been rather slow. But the essential differences between university-based and other forms of professional preparation have been that:

  • Universities form part of a recognized international system of education with clearly understood modes of entry and universally valued awards.
  • The general education associated with universities e.g., maturity, intellectual development, pluralism, cosmopolitanism, has become increasingly valued, not least by students.
  • Most universities now get their tuition subsidized by the State, thus reducing the cost of training.
  • Universities have a recognized independent role in the creation and validation of knowledge.
Hence there are financial and attitudinal reasons why most students prefer universities to isolated professional colleges. Professional organizations increasingly cannot afford to ignore the talent which enters higher education; and increasingly need university validation to confirm the status, worth and complexi...

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