Tuesday, March 17, 2009

My complex professional identities


We all have complex identities. I am a wife, a daughter, a sister, Irish, from Northern Ireland and more.
But I also have a complex professional identity with several different parts to my job. And sometimes when I come across a paper, a publication, a presentation or a conversation I am not sure which part of my identity is responding. For example, my friend presented about her use of audio-diaries as a method of collecting data for qualitative research this afternoon. I found myself responding to this as a practitioner of medical education, more than as a researcher. The different parts of my professional identity are also valued more or less by colleagues who have more singular identities.
Just some thoughts......