Answering the call: the processes of developing the social work identity
Date
2002
Authors
Noakes, Susan Anne
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Abstract
Using grounded theory, I explored the processes that a social worker goes through in developing his or her identity. I interviewed 12 participants who possessed a Bachelor of Social Work and/or a Master of Social Work degree and identified the basic social process of Answering the Call. Answering the Call includes three categories that the social worker assumes in taking on the identity: Entering the Identity, Making Meaning of the Identity and Owning the Identity. The social worker, furthermore, might reenter the identity and again go through the processes of developing the identity. Understanding how a social worker builds his or her identity can provide some necessary insight to social work employers, educators and social workers in general on how to support the members of this poorly understood and maligned profession.