Navigating the swampy lowlands: Higher education staff perspectives on the construction of professional identities through moral education within professional and community-facing degree programmes

Purpose
This research aimed to examine university staff perceptions of moral and ethical training on programmes where graduates will become community facing, such as policing and youth and community work.

Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data was gathered via semi-structured focus sessions with staff from Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of South Wales. Five participants from across the institutions volunteered to participate.

Findings
Higher education is a valuable tool for the moral and ethical education of students studying for community-facing roles. Key considerations included the relationship between personal ontologies and professional boundaries, safe spaces to address complex ethical issues and unconscious bias and preparing students using real-world examples from practice. The academics constructed their identities through their professional roles; this impacts their personal ontologies and their teaching.

Practical implications

Universities are an important vehicle for the formative construction of professional identity around the scaffold of professional standards, codes of practice and legislation.
Moral and ethical education offers the opportunity to support students to feel empowered to push back against normative social influences when they reach employment.
There is a need for safe spaces within universities for both staff and students to discuss moral and ethical issues that arise in practice.
Clinical supervision models may be a useful template for the supervision of both staff and students within higher education settings.
Originality
Previous research in this field has predominantly focussed on moral and ethical training within qualified community professionals as opposed to within higher education classrooms. The desire for supervision has also not been documented widely within these spheres.