Worldview education and normative professionalisation
Besides knowledge and skills, professionalism requires an awareness of the personal values that influence professional decision-making. An understanding of personal values is decisive for the quality of professional performance. This awareness-development process is supported by practice-based and biographical research.
Objective
The objective of this research is to identify the personal motivation of students and professionals. To do this, we are developing various tools that help individuals develop an awareness of and articulate their deeper motivation. The focus is on gaining moral awareness as part of an individual’s personal worldview.
- We are developing useful tools that can be used to chart and analyse the norms and values of students and professionals.
- We are developing tools and teaching activities that aid the self-reflection and value-oriented professionalisation of students and professionals.
Results
The result is a narrative-biographical research tool that can be adapted to suit any given degree programme. It is a tool that can be used to realise continued reflection throughout the course of the study.
Reflection also resulted in several analysis tools that help achieve an in-depth insight into the motivation that underlies the professional performance of students and professionals.
We distinguish between seven typologies of students, which help study career coaches to guide individual students effectively and make their norms and values explicit.
Ongoing research and projects are currently yielding a range of teaching methods, reflection tools that often make value orientation the subject of discussion and dialogue.
The theoretical substantiation is described in the dissertation.
Van der Zande, E. (2018). Life Orientation for Professionals. A Narrative Inquiry into Morality and Dialogical Competency in Professionalisation. Almere: Parthenon.
Duration
20 November 2019 - 01 December 2023
Approach
A narrative-biographical research method is used, in which data can be gathered via a self-designed tool. Added to this, the narrative texts of students and professionals have been subjected to a three-phase analysis in which 'borderline experiences' play a meaningful role.
