Bernadette Moorhead

The title of my doctoral thesis, completed in 2017, is: The lived experience of professional identity: A year-long study with newly qualified social workers. A methodology consisting of hermeneutic phenomenology and critical social work theory was utilised to explore how seventeen new social workers sustained and developed professional identity during the initial stages of their career. A range of factors impacted lived experience, including individual commitment to learning and development, meaningful relationships, access to professional development activities, and being recognised and valued as social workers, regardless their job title.

• Professional identity in social work
• Frameworks for graduate support and development
• Social work education, field placement (workplace learning)
• Study abroad and international study programs in social work
• Interpretive phenomenology and critical research methodology

I am a co-leader of the Social Work Identity International Research Group (SWIIRG). Our group consists of academics and researchers from countries such as Australia, Japan, Israel and England. We are passionate about investigating the ever changing professional identity of social work across the globe.