Professional socialisation and professional fit: Theoretical approaches to address student learning and teaching in speech-language pathology

Abstract

Purpose: The sociocultural and historical context and membership of the speech-language pathology (SLP) profession underpins our norms of practice and our discourses. This context also informs and defines the ways that we practice today, including who we legitimise to enter our profession and why. In this paper, we used theory as a tool to critically explore how this socioculturally constituted knowledge and practice influences how students experience learning in SLP practice placements.

Method: We used the theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (1991) as a conceptual framework to interpret qualitative data from two separate programs of research that had explored the phenomena of student learning in SLP practice placements.

Result: The analysis cast light on how our understanding and expectations of SLP students’ learning and competency development in placements is recursive and strongly legitimised in our profession. Students adjust to accommodate the professional knowledges, practices and expectations they encounter in their placements. This facilitates the perpetuation of practices proffered by the majority culture.

Conclusion: The use of theory allowed us to explore the phenomena of student learning in placements in a new light, which unmasked new understandings of the longstanding challenge to increase diversity in the SLP community.

Keywords:

• diversity
• socialisation
• speech-language pathology
• students
• practice placements
• legitimate peripheral participation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Professors Michelle Lincoln, Sue McAllister, Sally Hewat and Alison Ferguson who supervised and contributed to the primary research that contributed data for this study. The authors also wish to thank the many SLP students and practitioners who contributed their important perspectives and experiences for these works.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.