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MOTIVATIONS, VALUES, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION: STUDENTS’ INTEGRATION OF PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES

THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK is based on a distinct

set of value premises that set it apart from

other professional disciplines (Abbott, 2003;

Comp ton, Galloway, & Cournoyer, 2004;

D’Aprix, Dunlap, Abel, & Edwards, 2004;

Ream er, 2006). This difference between social

work and other helping professions is evident

in the educational emphasis on multicultural-

ism, specifically in regards to issues of privi-

lege and oppression, the application of person-

in- environment and constructionist theories of

the human experiences, and the importance of

social justice as a defining value of the profes-

sion. The National Association of Social Work -

ers (NASW) Code of Ethics (2008) explicitly de -

lineates six core values of the profession: serv-

ice, social justice, dignity and worth of the per-

son, importance of human relationships, in -

tegrity, and competence. These core values

reflect what is “unique to the profession” (Pre -

amble, para. 4) and are presented as fundamen-

tal guidelines of the profession.

Kelly, Alexander, and Cullinane (1986)

posited that in order for an occupation to be a

profession, “the members must identify with

it and its mission” (p. 6). The development of

Philip J. Osteen University of Maryland, Baltimore

Edicts within the Council on Social Work Education’s 2008 Educational Policy

and Accreditation Standards address the importance of understanding the

intersection of personal and professional values. Twenty MSW students, chosen

on the basis of diverse cultural and personal characteristics, were interviewed

about their motivations for pursuing a MSW degree and their personal and pro-

fessional values. Thematic analysis yielded an emergent model relating the

intersection of multiple forms of motivation, encountering and resolving value

conflicts, and integrating personal and professional identities. Implications for

education and practice are (1) the intersection of personal and professional

identities should be explicit components of curriculum; (2) strategies for man-

aging value conflicts should be an integral part of the curriculum; and (3) the

relationship between identity integration and practice needs to be delineated.

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424 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

a professional social work identity arises out

of growing “self- awareness” and a growing

identification with the roles, values, and ethics

of the profession (Carpenter & Platt, 1997).

Although not intended as a prescription of

global professional social work behavior, the

NASW Code of Ethics is nonetheless meant to

establish values, principles, and standards to

guide social workers’ decision making and

conduct (Purpose, para. 3). Even more specific

are the Council on Social Work Education’s

(CSWE) 2008 Educational Policy and Ac cred ita -

tion Standards (EPAS), establishing in Section

2.1.1 the educational outcome: “Iden tify as a

professional social worker and conduct one-

self accordingly” (p. 3).

The discourse on the role of value systems

in the field of social work is becoming more

intense and contentious as ill- conceived

notions of liberalism and conservatism strad-

dle the socio- political fence (Fram & Miller-

Cribbs, 2008). Some researchers have suggest-

ed the social work education selection process

be reformed in order to admit suitable stu-

dents with “desired characteristics” (Gibbons,

Bore, Monroe, & Powis, 2007, p. 211). Based on

a review of the literature, Gibbons and col-

leagues (2007) found that although most

admission processes focused on academic

suitability, educators also felt that personal

qualities and values played a role in students’

eventual success as a social work practitioner.

Among those qualities deemed “undesirable”

were intolerance and judgmental and opin-

ionated attitudes (Miller & Koerin, 1998).

Given the resources involved “both in class

and in the field to deal appropriately with the

few students who are academically able but

exhibit unsuitable personal qualities or inap-

propriate behavior” (Gibbons et al., 2007, p.

210), and the potential for negative impacts on

other students, faculty, field instructors, agen-

cies, and clients (Gibbons et al., 2007; Gray &

Gibbons, 2002), the recommendation was

made to focus more on the “screening in”

process of selecting appropriate students

instead of the “screening out” process for

inappropriate students.

Bisman (2004) has suggested that the

emphasis of the social work profession is on

the knowledge base of the profession, sup-

planting a focus on the values and mission of

the profession. One example is the current

debate in the field over the degree of congru-

ence between MSW students’ personal values

and those of the profession, with evidence

supporting claims that the personal value

bases of MSW students over the past 15 years

are both divergent and convergent in relation-

ship to the values of the profession (Abell &

McDonell, 1990; Allen- Meares, 2000; D’Aprix

et al., 2004). Some research findings suggest

that MSW students are more interested in pur-

suing careers in private clinical practice than

in careers focusing on oppressed and impov-

erished populations, and that there is dispari-

ty between the values of contemporary stu-

dents and those of the profession (D’Aprix et

al., 2004). These findings are in contrast to

those of Abell and McDonell (1990) who

reported that less than 25% of MSW students

surveyed intended to go into private practice,

and that these students remain “highly com-

mitted to the concept of involvement with the

disadvantaged” (p. 5) and express ongoing

commitments to serving traditional social

work client groups (Butler, 1990). Limb and

Or gan ista (2006) found that students’ atti-

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tudes towards, and commitment to, social

work’s mission, as evidenced though practice

preferences and career motivations, were gen-

erally high and positive, and did not change

much over the course of the MSW program.

Since the adoption of a set of values and

their incorporation in practice are definitive of

the professional social worker (Clark, 2006),

these findings— more particularly those that

indicate substantial and continuing value

divergences— are of fundamental importance

to the future of the social work profession. This

incongruence raises questions about whether

values that might be held as a part of a person-

al identity interfere with or even prevent the

adoption and practice of values that are at the

core of a social identity, such as that of “social

worker.” Haynes (1999) argues that the social

work profession should be “tolerant” of

diverse opinions and beliefs regarding “some

things, but not about its ideology” (p. 2).

Archer (2001) posits that commitment to a

social identity cannot exist without the sup-

port of overlapping values and beliefs at the

level of personal identity and, when applied

to social work, might suggest that anyone

with personal values inconsistent with social

work would not pursue adoption of this pro-

fessional identity. The prior research on this

question suggests that the reality is more com-

plex and indicates the need for exploration of

the interactions between social and personal

identities. According to Wenger (2003), social

identity is partially derived from engaging in

the practice of the community to which one

belongs or seeks to belong. Social identities

are simultaneously developed, maintained,

and constrained through participation in a

community of practice. It is in the execution of

practice, the learning, the mastery, and the

application that social identity is formed. It is

these communities of practice (CoPs) that

allow one to learn, adopt, and express a social

identity through participation (Wenger, 1998).

Social work education represents a formal

learning trajectory established by the larger

community of practice of social work. New -

com ers are brought into the community and

begin a path to full membership and participa-

tion. A substantial piece of the learning trajecto-

ry, and a necessary outcome for the social work

profession, is the understanding and incorpo-

ration of the values and ethics of the profession

in conjunction with adequate demonstration of

these same values and ethics in practice.

CSWE’s 2008 EPAS explicitly identify the

importance of professional values, the inter-

pretation of these values, and the role of the

academic institutions in modeling, teaching,

and assessing the integration of these values

into social work practice. Educational Policy

1.0, Pro gram Mission and Goals, reiterates the

core values of the profession as posited by the

NASW and establishes them as the foundation

of both explicit and implicit curricula. Edu ca -

tional Policy 2.0, The Social Work Curriculum

and Professional Practice, specifies several

educational outcomes related to identifying

personal values and resolving conflicts with

professional social work values. Although the

establishment of these outcomes as requisites

for membership and participation in the CoP

of social work is a key step in the professional-

ization of the discipline, there is no formalized

mechanism for evaluating the relationship be -

tween these two value systems. This research

explored the nature and context of motiva-

tions for participating in a social work CoP

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and the relationships among these different

forms of motivations, personal value systems,

professional social work values, and identity

integration.

Method

This study used an exploratory, qualitative

design to develop an emergent understanding

of the relationship among MSW students’ per-

sonal and profession value systems, the types

of value conflict students experience, the

methods they employ to negotiate value con-

flicts, and the integration of personal and pro-

fessional identities.

Participants

Participants consisted of students currently

enrolled in a MSW program at a private, Mid -

western university. An e- mail describing the

study was sent to all MSW students, and

interested students were asked to contact the

researcher directly. A nonrandom, purposive,

maximum variation sampling frame was

used. Maximum variation sampling involves

selecting participants who vary widely along

dimensions of interest (Patton, 2001). Dimen -

sions of interest were religious affiliation, age,

gender, sexual orientation, race, and family

socio economic status.

Interested students who did not identify

with majority- group characteristics (Cauca -

sian, heterosexual, and female) were automat-

ically selected for participation. Interested stu-

dents who did identify with these majority-

group demographics were further evaluated

according to age and religious affiliation and

enrolled based on the overall contribution to

the maximum variation of the sample. Pur -

pos ive recruitment attempts were made to

students known to self- identify as male, non-

Caucasian, and/or nonheterosexual. In line

with Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) idea of theo-

retical sampling, active recruitment of ad -

vanc ed students was initiated when a pattern

encompassing differences among foundation

students, advanced standing students, and

concentration students began to emerge.

Based on ad ditional recruitment efforts, seven

more participants were enrolled, yielding a

total sample of 20 interviewees. A summary of

participants by dimension of interested is pro-

vided in Table 1.

At the time of the study, the researcher

was a doctoral student and adjunct faculty

member in the social work program. Nine of

the participants were known prior to their

involvement in the study through enrollment

in classes taught by the researcher. Students

who were currently enrolled in courses taught

by the researcher were not eligible for partici-

pation in the study, and the researcher was no

longer an instructor at the school after the

completion of the study.

Procedure

Participants who were selected, consented,

and enrolled were then interviewed using a

semi structured interview protocol developed

by the researcher. Key questions addressed

factors influencing the decision to pursue a

MSW degree, congruence and conflict be -

tween personal values and professional social

work values, and ascription to and integration

of an identity as a social worker. Core ques-

tions from the interview protocol are listed in

Figure 1. All participants were interviewed by

the researcher on campus, in a private office.

All interviews were conducted face- to- face

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and were audio- taped for transcription.

Interviews ranged in length from 28 to 75

minutes. Interviews were transcribed, coded,

and analyzed by the researcher.

Analysis

A thematic analysis strategy incorporating

components of grounded theory was used in

427MOTIVATIONS, VALUES

TABLE 1. Maximum Variation Sampling Frame

Demographic Categories Frequencies

Race/ethnicity Caucasian 15

African American 2

Latino 1

Native American 1

Indian/Asian 1

Gender Female 16

Male 4

Sexual orientation Heterosexual/straight 16

Gay 1

Lesbian 1

Bisexual 1

Queer 1

Religious affiliation Catholic 1

Mormon 1

Nazarene 1

Buddhist 3

Jewish 2

Protestant 3

Atheist/agnostic 3

None 5

Other 1

Age Under 30 13

30–50 4

Over 50 3

Academic standing 1st year 7

2nd year 8

Advance standing 5

Socioeconomic status Lower middle/working class 5

Middle class 10

Upper/upper middle class 5

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this study. Data analysis was conducted con-

currently with data collection by first coding

each individual interview and then coding for

patterns across interviews. Analysis began

with line- by- line open coding of the data and

identifying and categorizing discrete elements

such as key words and phrases (Johnson &

Christensen, 2004; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). As

categories and properties were identified, pat-

terns of codes across interviews were devel-

oped based on the discrete data identified dur-

ing open coding (Johnson & Christensen, 2004).

Open coding was followed by axial cod-

ing to begin delineating the various condi-

tions of the identified categories (Strauss &

Corbin, 1998). Patterns of codes were assessed

for emergent themes, which were explored

and interpreted. As each theme emerged, it

was integrated into a conceptual model of

relationships among the themes. NVivo 8

computer software was used to facilitate cod-

ing and organization of interview data.

Creswell (2007) defines validation as a

“process” to “assess the ‘accuracy’ of the find-

ings, as best described by the researcher and

the participants” (p. 207). Glaser and Strauss

(1967) suggested that the process of conduct-

ing a grounded theory study is, in and of itself,

a form of validation, and, to use their terminol-

ogy, establishes “credibility.” Glaser and

Strauss contended that the credibility of the

generated theory should be judged ac cording

428 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

FIGURE 1. Semistructured Interview Protocol

Why are you pursuing a degree in social work?

What is it about social work that attracted you in the first place?

How would you describe the values of professional social work? Where do you think these values come from?

How would you describe your personal values? Where do you think these values come from?

Describe a situation in which you felt conflicted over a social work related decision you made.

Describe a situation in which something you observed in the program conflicted with your personal values.

Describe the political and social climate of your school. Do you believe your values are more similar to your peers or more different from them? Why?

In what ways do you see your own values portrayed in your social work practice?

In what ways do you see social work values portrayed in your day-to-day life?

Define what each of these values means to you. Which of these values is most important to you? Why?

• Service

• Social justice

• Dignity and worth of the person

• Importance of human relationships

• Integrity

• Competence

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to the strategies used for collecting, coding,

analyzing, and presenting data, and in the way

people interpret the theory. Pur po sive sam-

pling was used to maximize the di versity of

experiences and perspectives in the study, and

a systematic process of collecting data through

audio- recording was used. Draft copies of

results were sent to those participants who

were directly quoted, and they were asked to

consider both the context in which their words

were used and the meaning and interpretation

given to those words by the researcher. Five

participants responded to the author’s request

for feedback, and all agreed with the context

and interpretation of their words.

Results and Discussion

The roles of personal and professional value

systems as motivators and educational out-

comes were woven throughout the students’

stories. For most students, personal values

formed the foundation on which their deci-

sion to enter a MSW program was based.

Value conflicts were a common occurrence

and illustrate the importance of personal val-

ues as well as the role of social work educa-

tion in establishing a professional value sys-

tem. Given the centrality of values in the for-

mation of both personal and professional

identities, the resolution of this conflict played

a central role in identity integration. Follow -

ing Miles and Huberman’s (1994) recommen-

dation, a network display format was created

to illustrate the relationships between these

emergent themes (see Figure 2).

Values and Motivation

Support for Archer’s (2001) beliefs about how

the commitment to social action is influenced

by personal identity and internal values was

discovered in students’ stories of why they

enrolled in a MSW program. Specifically, all

students acknowledged that their personal

values undergird motivation based on a desire

to help others, as well as motivation based on

perceived congruence with the values of the

profession. Identification of personal beliefs as

a primary source of motivation illustrates

Archer’s theory of the importance of the inter-

nal self in relationship to the external self.

Desire to Help Others

All participants identified their desire to help

others and make a positive contribution to

society as the fundamental reason why they

chose to enter the program. As one participant

explained, “the ability to help people and the

desire to help people overrides all other

things.” This finding is consistent with previ-

ous research on students’ motivations for

entering social work (e.g., D’Aprix et al., 2004)

and supports Archer’s (2003) idea that doing

develops out of being. Being is a person’s

sense of his or her self; it is an individual’s

core internal identity. Doing is how an individ-

ual manifests his or her sense of self in the

social world. Entering the MSW program pro-

vided individuals, whose being included

helping others, an outlet for expressing their

sense of self by doing as a social worker.

The desire to help others seemed to stem

from multiple sources. Some students identified

specific events that shaped their desire to help

others. These events seem to have crystallized

more abstract and undefined feelings of want-

ing to “do something important, do some-

thing good.” For some students, the desire to

help others arose out of beliefs and values

429MOTIVATIONS, VALUES

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rooted in religious traditions or spirituality.

One young student, who considered herself

devoutly religious, recalled:

My teacher said “social work is profes-

sional Christianity.” We believe in

helping. And so for me it’s always

been a very connected issue. It’s a reli-

gious part of what I believe; serving

others, giving, trying, and helping

those who are less fortunate.

For other students, the desire to help oth-

ers developed out of beliefs and values in -

stilled in them by their families. One student

described the impact her parents had on her

beliefs surrounding equality and justice as:

I think both my parents are amazing

people and value the same things.

They just taught us life is about people

and not just about material success,

but about relationships with other peo-

430 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

FIGURE 2. Personal and Professional Identity Integration Model

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Evaluation and Negotiation

Integration

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ple; that you gotta do your best to help

other people.

Professional Legitimacy

Although the desire to help others was clearly

important to all participants, it did not, in and of

itself, explain the decision to pursue a graduate

degree. Most students made a connection

between needing a graduate degree to “legiti-

mately” engage in the practice of helping others.

One participant stated, “I felt getting a MSW

would open up a lot of avenues to what I want

to do, to working with families and doing ther-

apy, which you definitely need a higher degree

for.” As stated by one participant, “Right now I

want to do social work, and I knew I had to get

my MSW to do anything, to do anything sub-

stantial.” These responses suggest that a gradu-

ate degree legitimizes students’ capacity and

ability to help others within a professional con-

text through credentialing. The MSW degree is a

minimum qualification for most social- work

specific jobs, and a prerequisite for licensure.

Consistent with Weng er’s (1998) earlier work on

CoPs, the MSW program, and arguably any pro-

fessional graduate program, is a “learning tra-

jectory” through which participants acquire the

requisite skills and knowledge to achieve legiti-

mate and full participation.

Lave and Wenger (1991) describe participa-

tion as “a way of learning— of both absorbing

and being absorbed in— the ‘culture of prac-

tice’” (p. 95). Social work education serves as a

learning trajectory by which students are

involved in legitimate peripheral participation

as they progress through the curriculum and

situated learning of their academic programs;

through this process they absorb the practices

associated with professional social work while

simultaneously being absorbed into the struc-

tures associated with professional social work

(i.e., professional organizations, job “titles,”

professional licenses). The successful progres-

sion along this learning trajectory leads to full

participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

Within the context of professional legiti-

macy, there was a focus on acquiring the skills

and knowledge to practice competently. One

participant spoke at length about how an expe-

rience, prior to entering the MSW program,

with another social worker and other profes-

sionals in her agency left her feeling like she

“didn’t have a voice.”

Even though I tried to talk to the social

worker, she didn’t listen; I didn’t feel

like I had a voice. So, I came to [school]

to get a voice . . . I felt that if I had some

credentials with the social worker who

came out to work on the case, I would

have been heard.

These results support Wenger, McDer mott,

& Snyder’s (2002) idea that one type of motiva-

tion for entering a CoP is to acquire the knowl-

edge and skills needed to engage in the prac-

tice and move from peripheral or nonparticipa-

tion to legitimate full participation.

Practicality of the MSW Degree

A small group of respondents identified the

practicality of the degree as their primary

motivation. Practicality was endorsed as the

broader range of professional opportunities

afforded by the MSW degree versus graduate

degrees in similar disciplines such as coun -

seling psychology, school psychology, and

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clinical psychology, and also as the amount of

resources (i.e., time, effort, and cost) needed to

obtain the MSW degree in comparison to

graduate degrees in similar disciplines. Most

students motivated by practicality were in the

clinical track of the program and expressed

career goals based on private, clinical practice.

One of the older participants described it this

way:

I researched a lot what would be the

best career in the quickest amount of

time to get professionally credentialed,

whether it is a master’s or professional

license, that would allow me to move

into the field that would provide those

goals for me. In doing my research I

found [a MSW degree] would give me

the flexibility.

Similarly, one of the young women in the pro-

gram stated, “I had to ask myself, ‘Would I

rather spend 2 years in school than 5 when I

can do the same job?’” The decision to enter

the program was based in part on pragmatics

and not inherent qualities of the social work

profession.

Value Congruity

Participants were asked to talk about what

motivated them to choose a master’s degree in

social work over other similar disciplines. The

overwhelming response was that social work

values were more in line with the individual’s

personal values. One student, who described

her career goal as clinical practice, described

her decision as “applying to a MSW program

as opposed to a counseling program [because]

issues of multiculturalisms within oppressed

populations was really meaningful to me;

that’s sort of the reason I went with the MSW

instead of the counseling piece.” The three

things that students kept identifying as the

main draw of social work over psychology

were the systems approach, emphasis on social

justice, and emphasis on multiculturalism.

Impact of Learning on Value Systems

Black, Oles, and Moore (1998) argue that one

purpose of social work education is to “social-

ize” students to the profession’s value system;

exposure to the professions’ value system is

believed to “influence” students’ values to be

more in line with those detailed in the NASW

Code of Ethics (1999). The purpose of the cur-

rent study was not to evaluate students’ value

congruity on the basis of some external crite-

ria, but to instead understand how students

experience the intersection between personal

and professional values within the education-

al process. Students were asked about their

personal values and whether or not they had

ever experienced incongruity or conflict

between their personal values and what they

were being taught. Most students reported at

least one incident where they felt conflicted

between their personal values and what they

were experiencing in the program, and they

were asked to describe how they dealt with

those feelings.

As students entered and progressed

through the program, their exposure to social

work values impacted both their personal

value systems and their understanding and

interpretation of professional values. For

many students the educational process reaf-

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firmed their personal values and strengthened

their commitment to professional social work

values. For some students the educational

process challenged them and resulted in the

desire to more fully incorporate professional

values into their personal life. A third way the

program impacted value systems was to

reveal value incongruity.

Many students were motivated to enter

the MSW program because they believed

there was value congruity between their per-

sonal values and the values of the profession.

These students generally reported satisfaction

that this belief was realized in the program.

One student described this realization as

I always felt like it was a perfect fit for

me. I ended up right where I wanted to

be, where I should be. I haven’t been

struggling how to integrate the values

or how to accept the Code of Ethics. I

feel like that was not a struggle for me

at all.

Students still felt that the program

impacted their value systems, even if there

was a high degree of congruity to begin with.

For one student, this close alignment of per-

sonal and professional values challenged her

to explore her beliefs even more deeply:

In one sense I feel like this program has

been a 2-year personal therapy because

it’s really been about looking at myself

and the ways that even I perpetuate

racism without even knowing it. In

another sense I don’t feel like I’ve had

to shift my world view; if anything, my

world view was broadened, yeah, and

strengthened and reinforced at some

core level.

One of the older students beautifully ex -

pressed the impact of the program on her as,

“the program has made me a better me.”

A few students reported entering the pro-

gram without any foreknowledge of the value

base of the profession, indicating that their

motivation wasn’t based on perceived value

congruity. All of these students realized as

they learned more about the value base of the

profession that there was congruity between

personal and professional values. “I wasn’t

aware of the social work Code of Ethics, but I

found out that I had been practicing them, but

I didn’t know they had a label on them. So I

found validation in that.” Because value con-

gruity was not a motivating factor to enter the

program, the discovery of it had a powerful

and positive impact on these students.

A small group of students shared experi-

ences in which they felt their MSW education

was challenging them to reevaluate and build

on the personal values they came into the pro-

gram with. One student described it this way:

“I love the fact that I have become more open

to seeing things through a different lens.”

Other students felt they needed to more fully

incorporate social work values into their day-

to- day life. These students perceived strong

congruity between personal and professional

value systems but were struggling to enact

some professional values in their personal life.

One student shared her difficulty incorporat-

ing the value of social justice into her person-

al life:

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I’m not good at standing up. I come

from a family with verbal, racist homo-

phobes, so in my personal life, not so

good at that; it’s exhausting. Definitely

there’s some disconnect there because I

choose not to struggle, to personally

struggle; that will never go away.

Value Incongruity

As students entered and progressed through

the MSW program, there were times when

something they heard, read, or learned did

not match with their personal values and/or

their interpretation of social work values. For

some students this incongruity arose when

something happened within the program that

they felt was in violation of social work val-

ues. One student recounted an incident that

left her feeling “angry . . . confused . . . upset.”

One of the topics discussed in her multicultur-

alism class was ageism and society’s treat-

ment of older adults. As part of a class the pro-

fessor showed a video about older adults, but

the video was ended early because other stu-

dents complained that it was “boring” and

“dull.” The participant described her percep-

tion of other students’ attitudes as “we freak-

ing hate old people; they’re slow,” and feeling

that students like that should be expelled if

they didn’t “get it [their own bias].”

A different type of conflict arose when

students felt there was incongruity between

personal values and the values of the profes-

sion as they were being taught in classes. For

one student, the conflict arose because

In multicultural [class], [the professor]

brought up a thought a couple of

times, and it didn’t sit well with me

because the way it was presented is

like it was fact, and I very much don’t

believe in that. I don’t believe that

homosexuality is natural.

Based on religious beliefs, the student could

not support issues such as same- sex marriage

or adoption by same- sex partners. She

described the experience of being in conflict as

“difficult because sometimes I think it’s best

to not be obvious by saying things. At the

same time it’s hard because I don’t want any-

one to think I believe those things, so it’s an

internal struggle.”

It was not uncommon for students to

encounter value incongruity at some point

during their educational program, and they

employed a variety of strategies to negotiate

the incongruity.

Negotiating Value Conflicts

Students employed a variety of strategies for

negotiating value conflicts. Students reported

“resolving” the conflict in terms of progress-

ing beyond the conflict, although this resolu-

tion did not necessarily mean that the conflict

was gone. One strategy for negotiating the

conflict was selective endorsement of social

work values and compartmentalization of

conflict. In this instance, students would dif-

ferentiate between circumstances when they

could endorse a specific social work value and

when they could not. For example:

I feel like I’m here to get my education

and do the best I can, and I’ll find the

right fit for me when I’m all done. Do

you know what I mean? There are

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some areas of social work that I won’t

go into because it’s not a good fit for

me according to my beliefs.

As one student asked, “If your beliefs match,

that’s good, but if they don’t, who’s to say you

can’t be a social worker?”

A second strategy for negotiating value

conflicts was to try and remove the conflict by

integrating the different value positions into a

congruent whole. If the conflict could not be

solved, the student moved forward with the

issue set aside. For example, when faced with

an incident from her multiculturalism class

where the professor made the statement “peo-

ple of color can’t be racist,” a student stated

that she “really struggled with that. I tried to

sit with it, to sit in it, but it didn’t feel right to

me; it didn’t fit.” The difference between this

strategy and the previous one is that in the

second strategy the student acknowledged

the conflict and attempted to resolve it by

integrating it or rejecting it.

A third strategy for negotiating value con-

flicts was to view the conflict as external to the

student. In this situation students experienced

conflict but not because of incongruity within

themselves; instead, the students perceived

conflict between social work values and the

behavior and/or attitudes of others. Dealing

with this type of conflict involved reaffirming

students’ beliefs that their values were congru-

ent with social work and that any incongruity

existed with others. In some instances students

sought to resolve the conflict by educating oth-

ers about the perceived incongruity between

their behaviors and/or attitudes and social

work values, whereas in other instances stu-

dents simply discounted their peers. The stu-

dent in the story recounted above regarding

the multicultural class on ageism ex plained

her approach as “confrontational” and being

willing to “call them on their stuff”; “if they

don’t get it [power and privilege], they

shouldn’t be here.” Another respondent said

I really don’t think we should be

allowed to practice social work with-

out having at least some strive for

social justice. That’s the main compo-

nent of all the ethics; to not believe in

that at all is just the opposite. That peo-

ple think that’s okay is weird to me . . .

I don’t want to have the same degree

as that person.

Integration of Personal and

Professional Identities

Archer (2001) and Wenger and colleagues

(2002) address the notion of identity integra-

tion in their works. From a critical realist per-

spective, Archer (2001) suggests the primacy

of personal identity, and that the choice to

commit to a social (i.e., professional) identity

is made within the context of the individual’s

personal values. Alternatively, Wenger and

colleagues suggest that social (i.e., profession-

al) identity develops through the process of

becoming a part of a CoP. The idea of identity

as both a personal construct and a profession-

al construct was explored with students.

Participants were asked to describe what

these constructs meant to them and how they

made sense of them in their own lives. The

question “Are you a social worker?” was used

to initiate a discussion about how integration

occurs and is expressed.

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Several students said that they hadn’t real-

ly thought about having different identities

before, and they were encouraged to do so dur-

ing the interview. “I hadn’t really thought of it

as two separate things; I don’t know. I guess

they’re the same, but maybe not.” Stu dents’

responses reveal glimpses of a multifaceted

process of identity integration. Iden ti ty integra-

tion can yield multiple outcomes. Integration

can be defined as the result of forming, coordi-

nating, or blending into a functional or unified

whole (Dic tion ary.com, n.d.). One observed

outcome was students adopting the label

“social worker” to describe their professional

selves; this outcome is label “integrated.” The

second observed outcome was students not

adopting the label “social worker” to describe

their professional selves; this outcome is

labeled “nonintegrated.” The third observed

outcome was students who felt they were in

the process of acquiring a professional social

work identity; this outcome was labeled

“evolving.”

The concept of an integrated identity

seemed pretty consistent for those students

who fell into that category. For these students, it

seemed that the professional label “fit” their

self- conception of who they are and what they

do. The idea of an integrated identity was

expressed in an older student’s description of

herself: “You know, in my spirit I think I’ve

always been a social worker; I just didn’t have a

name for it.” Similarly, one student stated, “It’s

not only the education that I can call myself a

social worker, but that I’m very aligned with the

ethics of social work.” Another student

described how the educational process allowed

her to become a social worker:

I’ve never really considered myself a

social worker before I came to school

here. I mean I can do social work, but

am I a social worker? Helping people,

changing communities, whatever. You

can do that without having a social

work degree. But going through the

process of learning about social work

and learning what all the other things

are about, then I would identify, yes,

this is a part of me.

The nonintegrated identity outcome

seemed to arise out of a variety of situations,

but in each case the student was making a

conscious decision to not adopt the “social

worker” label. Some students believed that

the title was counterproductive to the work

they wanted to do, and therefore not helpful

in terms of a professional identity. One stu-

dent, a young Latina woman, described it this

way:

Eventually I won’t call myself a social

worker, but I’ll always know I come

from a social worker value system. I

don’t think in my community, when I

tell people I’m a social worker, they

don’t get it. They think of those bas-

tards at the welfare office. In my com-

munity it’s not something people will

understand or see that way because

they think of those people who have

treated them like crap. . . . If people

understood the connection between

activism and social work, then I would

call myself a social worker; but I feel

like I have to adapt anywhere I go.

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A similar example shows the nonintegrat-

ed identity outcome being chosen because a

student did not believe the title adequately

described his sense of self or his practice. This

type of outcome was expressed in the story of

a young, advanced standing, male student.

I have a hard time saying I’m a social

worker. I don’t know what that’s about, I

really don’t. Sometimes I say I work with

kids with substance abuse issues and

leave it at that. I really have a hard time,

on the flip side of that, labeling myself as

“this is who I am” because of my profes-

sion. I don’t ever want to be tagged as

just being a social worker. “I am this

because I went to school for that.”

This choice to not adopt the social worker title

seemed related to his own conceptualization

of what it means to be a social worker. He

framed it concisely when he said, “I came to

this because of who I am . . . [but] social work

is what I do, not who I am.”

A third student expressed this nonintegra-

tion by also distinguishing between his person-

al self and his professional self. “I would say by

profession I am a social worker. My training

and degree will show that I’m a social worker,

but I feel like I’m so much more than that.” For

him, “social work” was just a name that applied

to the things he cared about and believed in; the

title wasn’t in and of itself relevant.

The evolving identity outcome was an

option chosen by students who felt they could

not integrate their personal and professional

identities at the moment. This outcome

appeared in two situations. The first situation

involved students who felt they could not

claim the professional identity until they com-

pleted their degree. In this sense, graduation

represented, to use Wenger’s (1998) terminol-

ogy, a shift from legitimate peripheral partici-

pation to full participation. A foundation year

student described her feelings this way:

There is a guiding set of standards that

I don’t have yet. I think that I’m still in

the process of coming to know myself

as a social worker and learning a lot

about things that sit with me or don’t

sit with me. I don’t feel like I’m ready

to be out in the world as a social work-

er. I feel like I still have a lot of training.

The training is part of my MSW, so

hopefully in a year I’ll feel ready.

The second situation involved a student

who did not feel capable of maintaining both

identities at the present time. When asked if

she considered herself a social worker, she

responded:

Sometimes I feel like I am; sometimes I

feel like I’m not. I want to become one

but I don’t feel like I’m there yet per-

sonally or professionally. When I reach

a point personally where it’s doable,

when I can do my personal life and

professional life at the same time,

when I can keep all those balls up in

the air at the same time, then yes; right

now I can’t.

Regardless of identity integration status,

students expressed commitment to acting in a

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way that was consistent with their personal

values and that was consistent with their

interpretation of social work values. However,

in instances when they were unable to fully

integrate the two identities, their commitment

to their personal values took primacy.

There are certain issues I don’t sup-

port; if I were told “you have to sup-

port this issue or you’ll be cut from

social work,” that would be extremely

difficult. I would choose my religious

belief; that’s my foundation. Being a

social worker is part of who I am, but

it’s not my foundation.

Cultural Contextualization

An additional question addressed in this

study was how do issues of diversity and cul-

tural identity influence students’ experiences

of self, others, and the profession. Religion

and spirituality played influential roles at

multiple points in the identity integration

model. The impact of religion and spirituality

was demonstrated in multiple ways— as moti-

vation, as value base, as conflict, as identity—

and was expressed in both formal and infor-

mal ways. Religion and/or spirituality was

present throughout students’ stories and is

most notable as the source of students’ desire

to help others, the common thread tying them

all to social work. Even students who identi-

fied as atheist/agnostic or as having no specif-

ic religious affiliation evoked spirituality and

the sense of connectedness to the larger world

and universe as the underlying source of their

desire to help others. Religion, though not

spir i tuality, also produced value conflicts,

spe cifically when students felt social work

values were at odds with their religious teach-

ings. What is most notable here is that reli-

gion, spirituality, and social work were not

viewed as antithetical, but in fact as sharing

many commonalities. That conflicts arise due

to socially constructed and historically situat-

ed interpretations of abstract value systems

should not be surprising.

The influence of other cultural identities,

with the exception of age, was less well

defined and instead formed a contextual lens

through which students made sense of their

experiences. The influence of cultural con-

structs such as race, gender, social class, and

orientation could not be delineated. Age

seemed to express itself in two distinct ways.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, age seemed to be of

importance to older students. The use of

“older” didn’t equate with a specific number

but was instead used by participants to differ-

entiate themselves from the larger group of

students who were typically single or part-

nered without children, under the age of 25,

and had less professional experience.

Many of my peers are younger than

me, and I sometimes feel that their val-

ues are less subtle. Some are becoming

social workers as an “easy to get” pri-

vate counseling degree and are not

thinking so much about helping clients

or changing the world.

Older students seemed to place different

emphasis on the importance of helping others

as a motivator for entering the program.

Specifically, these students were all returning

to school after careers in other fields, and their

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desire to help others within a professional

context was juxtaposed against the types of

jobs they’d had in the past.

I think being an older person and hav-

ing a lot of my life already doing

achievements and goals, and accom-

plishments, etc., in some respect, even

though those achievements were great,

they lacked a lot of inner connection

with people that brings a lot of self-

satisfaction. I thought what I’d like to

do now, is be able to give my time and

have a new more rewarding career.

Age also seemed to play a role in identity

integration. Older students revealed integrat-

ed identities, whereas younger students

exhibited the range of identity types. One stu-

dent stated:

You know, in my spirit I think I’ve

always been a social worker; I just did-

n’t have a name for it. As I mentioned,

I spent 27 years at [company], so I was

done with that type of work. I started

in this field because I was bored. I was-

n’t planning on having another “job”

job. But when I started it really spoke

to me. It . . . brought it full circle,

brought it home to me. So, yes, at my

spirit I have always been a social

worker.

Discussion

This exploratory, qualitative study yielded

results supporting previous research in this

area, as well as suggesting a new model for

understanding the complex relationships

between personal and professional values,

negotiating value conflicts, and integrating an

identity as a professional social worker. As

depicted in Figure 2, the personal and profes-

sional values integration model can be con-

ceptualized as three distinct but related com-

ponents. The lefthand side of the model,

denoted Motivation, illustrates the different

types of motivations that influenced students’

decisions to enter a MSW program. The

importance of personal values and the con-

gruence between personal and professional

values as preconditions in the subscription to

a social identity (i.e., social worker) are core

components of Archer’s (2001, 2003) social

realist identity theory. That students chose to

enter social work as a means of fulfilling their

desire to help others is not a new finding; this

study supports previous research in this area.

What is new, however, is the situating of the

desire to help others in a more complex con-

stellation of motivations including the practi-

cality of the MSW degree and the need for

professional legitimacy developed through a

formal learning trajectory (Wenger, 1998).

The second component of the model,

Evaluation and Negotiation, develops out of the

situated learning that occurs in the MSW pro-

gram (Wenger, 1998). A substantial piece of

the learning trajectory, and a necessary out-

come for the social work profession, is the

understanding and incorporation of the val-

ues and ethics of the profession in conjunction

with adequate demonstration of these same

values and ethics in practice (CSWE, 2008).

Consistent with Archer’s (2003) theory on the

primacy of personal identity over social iden -

tity, incongruence between personal and

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professional values must be negotiated before

a student can integrate multiple identities.

The third component of the model,

Integration, consists of the integration of per-

sonal and professional identities based on the

outcomes of the previous evaluation and

negotiation. Wenger and colleagues (2002)

have suggested that the learning trajectory

can result in a range of outcomes based on the

CoP’s formal acceptance of the individual,

which occurs with the awarding of the MSW

degree. Archer ’s (2001, 2003) social realist

identity model suggests that integration of

personal and social identity is more actively

managed by the individual with social identi-

ty being remodeled as needed to match per-

sonal sense of self.

The emergent model linking motivations,

value conflicts and the strategies used to

negotiate them, and identity integration is

original. Although it draws on the established,

and presumably incongruent, theories of

social realist identity development and the

role of situated learning in identity formation,

the model elicits new understanding by merg-

ing complementary components of these the-

ories. The results of the study can guide the

development of a typology of the different

types of strategies used to negotiate value

conflicts, as well as the categorization of the

various identity integration outcomes.

Strengths and Limitations

Although the use of a small, purposive sam-

ple is not a limitation of the qualitative design

in and of itself, it constrains the generalizabil-

ity of the findings. Human experience is

always culturally situated, and the potential

impact of the sociopolitical climate of the

school should be recognized even though it

cannot be fully assessed from the data. Al -

though conflicts stemming from the intersec-

tion of personal and professional values are

more likely to originate within the student,

conflicts arising from relationships with peers,

faculty, and practitioners will be shaped, and

even caused, by the social environment in

which they occur.

The relationships between researcher and

participants may have been a strength or a

weakness depending on the nature of the rela-

tionship and its effect on students’ percep-

tions of the research, the researcher, and them-

selves. The potential influence of social desir-

ability is high, as some students may have

attempted to meet the perceived expectations

of the researcher regarding what constituted

correct answers and/or avoid giving answers

they believed would be judged as inappropri-

ate or incorrect and consequently reflecting

negatively on them. It is also a defensible

claim that established relationships built on

mutual trust and respect positively influenced

students’ willingness to talk about their per-

sonal values and experiences in the program.

Both implicit and explicit methods were used

to assuage students’ concerns over confiden-

tiality and privacy, negative outcomes, and

academic repercussions.

Implications

Participants at the 2010 Social Work Congress

voted on the key imperatives for developing

“the next generation of social workers” and

addressing “issues that challenge the fast-

growing social work profession” (NASW,

2010, para. 1). Under the imperative Recruit -

ment, goals include informing potential social

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workers about the social and economic value

of the profession and promoting social work

as a career option across the life span. Both of

these goals are supported by the current

research, which found that positively impact-

ing society was a major draw to the profes-

sion, and that age and previous careers did

not hinder older adults from entering the pro-

fession. It may be in the interest of the field to

further assess the role of practicality in stu-

dents’ decision to enter a MSW program.

From a recruitment standpoint, attracting stu-

dents because of the structure of the MSW

program (i.e., only a 2-year program) and the

flexibility of the degree may be a benefit to

educational institutions seeking to increase

enrollment and financial security. What is not

known is if there is a relationship between

practicality motivation and student outcomes.

The research does not address this issue, and,

if judged to be an issue of interest, programs

will need to measure this in some way.

The discourse on the role of value systems

in the field of social work is becoming more

intense and contentious. In an editorial in the

Washington Post, George Will, a Pulitzer

Prize–winning journalist, accused schools of

social work education of “indoctrination”

because “such programs mandate an ideolog-

ical orthodoxy to which students must sub-

scribe concerning ‘social justice’ and ‘oppres-

sion’” (2007, p. B07). Will goes on to criticize

social work programs for their “vocabulary of

‘progressive’ cant” and questions the legality

of requiring students to adhere to the NASW

Code of Ethics. A handful of lawsuits over the

past few years further illustrates the contro-

versial nature of incongruent personal and

professional values in social work (for more

information see Felkner v. RIC, Brooks v. Mis -

souri State University, Keeton v. Anderson- Wiley,

etc.), and groups such as the Foun da tion for

Indi vid ual Rights in Education (www.the-

fire.org) and the National Association of

Schol ars (www.nas.org) challenge the ethical

guidelines of the profession.

The study reported in this article was nei-

ther designed nor analyzed and interpreted

with the intent of establishing criteria for dis-

cerning students appropriate for social work

practice from those who are not appropriate.

The researcher doesn’t propose that one out-

come is better than the other, or that one out-

come should be viewed as success and the

other as failure. Instead, emphasis should be

placed on the dynamic process of identity

integration and the agency exercised by stu-

dents in choosing their own identities. The

task accomplished in this study was re vealing

that encountering value incongruity was a

common experience for students, and their

strategies for navigating these conflicts may

not always result in the development, demon-

stration, and promotion of social work values.

Social work programs are encouraged to con-

tinue addressing the intersection of personal

and professional values through the educa-

tional process, but also to consider the differ-

ent types of value incongruity experienced by

students, the multiple strategies for resolving

those conflicts, and the impact on students’

learning and future practice.

Numerous edicts within the CSWE 2008

EPAS address the importance of understand-

ing the intersection of personal and profes-

sional values. By means of a social work edu-

cation, students are meant to become practi-

tioners who “recognize and manage personal

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values in a way that allows professional values

to guide practice” (p. 4). Curriculum that stops

at recognition of personal values only address-

es part of the educational goal. Strategies for

managing value conflicts should be an integral

part of any academic exploration of value sys-

tems. As revealed in the data from the current

study, students are en gaged in a dynamic

process of both value and identity integration.

Teaching and guiding students in the develop-

ment of effective and appropriate strategies for

handling conflicts are as important as teaching

them to recognize these conflicts.

The field of social work is also collective-

ly challenged to further explore the impor-

tance and role of professional identities in

education and practice. The CSWE EPAS

clearly highlights the adoption of the profes-

sional social worker identity as a desirable

educational outcome. What does it mean to

identify as a professional social worker? The

results suggest that students differentiate

between being a social worker and doing

social work, and that there isn’t always over-

lap between the two. For example, is the stu-

dent who will not support the goal of equal

rights and economic and social justice for

marginalized groups a “social worker”? Is he

or she doing social work? Is there a field of

practice that is unique to social work, and if

so, what roles do personal and professional

identities play?

Obtaining the MSW does not mean that a

student will choose to identify as a social

worker. Similarly, obtaining the MSW does

not mean that a student supports and pro-

motes the values of the profession in his or her

practice. Only by linking educational out-

comes to practice outcomes can the field legit-

imately claim the title of “a value based pro-

fession” where the “constellation of core val-

ues reflects what is unique to the social work

profession” (NASW, 1999, p. 1).

Areas for continued research include fur-

ther exploration of the sources of value con-

flicts students experience and the types of

strategies they use to negotiate these conflicts.

A more complete understanding of the mean-

ing of a “professional social worker identity”

is necessary, including how the phrase is used

in the CSWE EPAS, and how students, faculty,

and practitioners interpret it for themselves.

Educational outcome assessment in regards to

practice is sorely needed; the current study

does not provide enough information about

the role and impact of progress through the

education process on conflict negotiation and

identity integration. The flexibility of the

EPAS should encourage social work educators

to develop new and insightful methods for

teaching and evaluating ability to recognize

and manage personal values.

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