Professional Motivation and Professional Socialization – Teachers and Nurses Compared

The paper compares the impact of education and the transition to working life on the work motivation and understanding of knowledge of teachers and nurses, by analyzing survey data gathered at the beginning of education, during education and three years after graduation. The theoretical point of reference is the assumption that knowledge and values are constructed in different contexts or communities of practice (Eraut 1994, Wenger 1998), and that transfer of values and knowledge between different contexts can be analysed as boundary-crossing made by the actors (Guile & Young 2003; Engeström 1996: Van Oers 1998a, 1998b; Beach 1999). The questions addressed are: how does transfer from education to work affect job values and understanding of knowledge in nursing and teaching? Can any changes found be interpreted as socialization into a professional identity? The main findings are 1) Nursing students emphasize professional knowledge and practical skills to a much greater extent than students in the Teaching Education Program, and this difference seems to strengthen during education. This is interpreted with reference to differences in the historical development of the two professions in Norway, and changes in individual professional role along with the professional mandate. It is also argued that it can be interpreted as professional socialization. 2) Students in both professions emphasize the opportunity to help other as important for the choice of work. The changes found in the job values are few but occur at different educational stages in the two professions: students of teaching experience motivational change mainly during education, while nursing students’ motivation change mainly after entering the working life. Simultaneously, the stability in job values points towards a selection of students to the different educational programs, rather than professional socialization.

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