What does social work professional identity mean for social work educators? How can our own understanding help students to develop a sense of professional identity? This E-team invites participants to share experience and ideas for helping students to develop their understanding of professionalism and professional identity.

Building on the global definition of social work (IFSW, 2014), developing professional identity would appear to be important for all social work students regardless of national variations in practice. At the same time, we recognise that debates about social work and professional identity are long-running. Social work has frequently struggled to be accepted as a professional occupation (and as an academic discipline). It is also important to acknowledge that due to its elitist connotations, professionalism hasn’t always been valued in social work: this may influence the experiences and perspectives of some social work educators.