Constructs of professionalism in civic practice: Asking practitioners at the front line

Abstract

A range of practitioners nowadays are expected to engage in 'civic practice': to actively enhance community self-reliance, foster capacity-building, increase participation, reduce barriers, develop community infrastructure or improve the health of the community. This 'work' can extend to promoting the profile of the arts, culture, and national identity, or empower the voices of others to strengthen civic engagement. A range of people working to these ends were interviewed to examine if a construct of professionalism informed the way they framed their occupational identity and their practice. A fifty item-scale was used to assess how much they valued characteristics of professionalism across five elements and their 'scores' ranked the knowledge, ethics, skills, research and reward elements of this professional domain. The results showed practitioners ranked all items highly but not evenly. Items from only three elements featured in the top ten items ranked as important: the rewards respondents got from their efforts, the skills they applied on the job and the knowledge they were able to apply were valued most highly. The value of their ethical care and their use of research professional development in practice featured in the lower tranches. Discussion of outcomes suggests that practitioners base their 'professionalism' in the focus and terms of their employment rather than the development of an occupational discipline or membership of a unifying profession. Discussion provides insight into the value of professionalism within an occupational domain and leads to debate on the scope for civic practice to build a professional identity.