Professional Expertise: Practice, Theory and Education for Working in Uncertainty

This book provides a framework for professional expertise and practice for our times.

Professionals must deal with complex and unpredictable situations and balance competing interests. What specific knowledge and skills should they develop to be able to work flexibly and confidently? How is the often stereotypical knowledge of the novice student transformed into responsive ways of working in uncertainty?

This book grounds these issues in a study of contemporary professional practitioners as they developed their expertise over a period of five years beginning with their preliminary training. It describes their initiation into practice and their progression towards professional effectiveness. Using an analysis of patterns in the development of experienced practitioners, the authors create a theory of professional expertise for practice in conditions of uncertainty. The book also proposes educational strategies to help develop this expertise.

Professional Expertise: Practice, theory and education for working in uncertainty will be of interest to anyone involved in the training and development of professional staff in human services such as: social, youth and community work; health and social care; nursing; mental health; probation; and adult and community education.