Research on professional identity formation in higher education has highlighted a need for deeper insight into the tensions and dynamics shaping students’ pathways into professional life. Trede et al. (2012) identify unresolved questions related to tensions between personal and professional values, structural and power relations, discipline-specific versus generic educational aims, and the role of workplace learning. More recent work similarly notes that although identity development is central to students’ ability to be, become, and remain professionals, it is often insufficiently addressed in higher education (Beijaard et al., 2023). Consequently, there is a need for stronger empirical knowledge about how professional identity unfolds across educational stages and transitions (Beijaard et al., 2023; de Paor, 2017).

This paper draws on a two-phase research design conducted over four years, addressing the following research questions:

What factors and tensions emerge in the development of professional identity across transitions throughout professional education and into the first year of practice?

What differences, similarities, and profession-specific tensions related to the development of professional identity emerge when comparing social work, teacher education, and nutrition and health professions?

The first phase of the research project comprised a comparative study of first-year students enrolled in teacher, nursing, social work, and nutrition and health education, drawing on the rationale articulated by Trede et al. (2012). The second phase (2025–2026) follows a sub-sample of the participants from the original cohort – specifically from the teacher, social work, and nutrition and health programmes - supplemented with new informants and focuses on the transition from the final year of study into the first year  professional practice.

Professional identity development can be understood as an ongoing individual and collective sensemaking process shaped by relational, experiential, historical, contextual, and environmental factors. Tensions emerging during practicum and placement periods often play a central role in this process (Rodrigues & Mogarro, 2019). Findings from the first phase of our study revealed both shared and profession-specific tensions among teachers, social workers, nurses, and nutrition and health students (Nielsen et al., 2023).

Although professional identity development is complex, much of the literature still examines either a single profession or a single educational stage. Our research traces individuals from multiple professions across successive stages of education and into early-career practice. This longitudinal and comparative design provides insight into how tensions and transitions emerge, interact, accumulate, and reconfigure over time. The longitudinal perspective offers a nuanced account of both continuity and disruption (O’Donnell et al., 2016), highlighting how key transition points shape professional identity trajectories.

By tracing students through their first year of study, their final year following completion of practicum, and their first year as professionals, we analyse how early anticipations develop, how practicum experiences reshape understandings of the profession, and how entry into the workplace reconfigures identity-related tensions. Although the three professions operate within different knowledge bases and organisational conditions, they share characteristics common to welfare-oriented fields. This enables us to identify both shared and profession-specific patterns in how students experience stability and change in their identity development.

Across the dataset, we observe a spectrum ranging from students who feel isolated in their identity work and struggle with inadequacy or disillusionment to those who experience practicum as the pivotal element that clarifies who they are becoming as professionals. In doing so, the findings contribute new knowledge about how transitions across education and practice shape the dynamic and tension-laden processes of becoming - and belonging - as a professional with implications for the development of higher education.

The research is designed as a sequential qualitative study drawing on longitudinal data generated through semi-structured individual and group interviews (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). Interviews were conducted at three time points. The empirical material comprises interviews with students enrolled in three distinct professional education programs during their first year of study. Some of these students were interviewed again in their final year of study and some in their first year in professional practice. In addition, new participants (students in the final year of education and practitioners in their first year in professional practice) were included in the second phase of the study (2025–2026). All interviews were conducted using the same interview guide across the three professional education programs, supplemented by time-point-specific interview guides. In the first year, interviews focused on participants’ backgrounds, educational choices, and initial reflections on pre‑professional identity (Jackson, 2016). In the final year of education, interviews explored experiences from practicum and placement periods, while interviews conducted in the first year of professional practice addressed experiences of workplace entry and the transition to practice. All interviews were transcribed verbatim. The data are analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke 2006; 2022; Braun et al., 2018;). The analysis proceeds through four interconnected analytical phases, following an iterative approach that moves between individual analyses and collective reflexive analyses within the research team of three researchers. In the first phase, each interview is analysed within its professional context, focusing on profession-specific meanings and experiences. In the second phase, analyses are conducted within each profession to explore how participants articulate identity-related experiences and tensions over time. In the third phase cross-case analyses are undertaken to identify shared patterns and dominant themes characterizing identity development at different stages. In the fourth and final phase, a comparative analysis across the three professions examines similarities and differences in how professional identity tensions are experienced, negotiated, and reconfigured across educational and professional contexts. Throughout the analytic process, reflexivity is sustained through iterative coding, memo-writing, and ongoing team discussions, which document analytic decisions and support interpretive rigour.

The study demonstrates how identity-related tensions evolve in the transition from choosing a programme to becoming a student and, subsequently, a newly qualified professional. These tensions are dynamic, - being continuously shaped by earlier understandings and transition experiences that influence later professional positioning. The transitional period begins with the choice of study programme and involves intertwined processes of becoming and belonging (Beijaard et al., 2023; de Paor, 2017). In the first year, participants negotiate a pre professional identity (Jackson, 2016) aligned with visions and values of the future profession; tensions may arise as students encounter public debates and media portrayals of challenges within the welfare professions. A significant and persistent tension emerges from the misalignment between students’ and newly qualified professionals’ values and self-image and the realities of practice settings. Many express an early awareness that they may be unable to influence professional practice as hoped leaving them with uncertainty and doubt about themselves as professionals. These tensions continue throughout educations and into the first year of practice, where idealistic aspirations meet complex organizational realities. The study further shows that students and newly qualified professionals often experience professional identity formation as an individual and largely private endeavor. The findings therefore indicate that educational institutions (and workplaces) need to engage with central factors shaping professional identity development, including affective experiences such as disappointment arising from mismatches between anticipated and enacted professional roles. By tracing these processes longitudinally and in depth, the study contributes new insights into the risks of early-career professionals leaving the welfare professions. The results point to several actionable ways for educational programmes and workplaces to mitigate identity tensions and support emerging professionals in sustaining their commitment to the field.

Adams, T., & Sawchuk, P. H. (2021). Professional-organizational contradictions and hybridization of knowledge: Insights from the study of engineering and nursing in Canada. Vocations and learning, 14(1), 75-93. Akkerman, S. F., & Meijer, P. C. (2011). A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 308–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.08.013 Beijaard, D., Koopman, M., & Schellings, G. (2023). Reframing teacher professional identity and learning. I The Palgrave handbook of teacher education research (Bd. 2023, s. 763–785). Springer International Publishing. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis – a practical guide. Sage Braun, V., Clarke, V., Hayfield, N., & Terry, G. (2018). Thematic Analysis. I P. Liamputtong (Red.), Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences (s. 843–860). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5251-4_103 De Paor, C. (2017). Beginning to Teach: A Time for Becoming and Belonging. International Journal of Learning and Teaching, 3 (3), 202-206. Fitzgerald, A. (2020). Professional identity: A concept analysis.Nursing Forum, 55(3), 447-472. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12450 Izadinia, M. (2013). A review of research on student teachers' professional identity. British educational research journal, 39(4), 694-713. Kvale, S. & Brinkmann, S. (2009). InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing. SAGE publications Jackson, D. (2016) Re-conceptualising graduate employability: the importance of pre-professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(5), 925-939. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1139551 Pillen, M., Beijaard, D. & den Brok, P. (2013). Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers. Teachers and Teaching, 19 (6), 660-678. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2013.827455 Nielsen, B. L., Lang, N. R., Grosen, T. H., & Høyer, H. (2023). Professionsidentitet på tværs: Hvordan er vi som professionelle, hvordan er jeg, og hvad tænker de andre? Tidsskrift for professionsstudier, 19(36), 38–49. https://doi.org/10.7146/tfp.v19i36.139976 O’Donnell, V. L., Kean, M., & Stevens, G. (2016). Student transition in higher education. Higher Education Academi, 2016. Rodrigues, F., & Mogarro, M. J. (2019). Student teachers’ professional identity: A review of research contributions. Educational Research Review, 28, 100286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100286 Trede F., Macklin, R. & Bridges, D. (2012). Professional identity development: a review of the higher education literature. Studies in Higher Education, 37(3), 365-384. Vähäsantanen. K. (2022). Professional identity in changing workplaces: Why it matters, when It becomes emotionally imbued, and how to support its agentic negotiations. In C. Harteis, D. Gijbels & E. Kyndt (Eds.), Research approaches on workplace learning (pp. 29-46). Springer.