ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 39 (Number 29) Year 2018. Page 7

Analysis of gender differences in the professional identity indicators of pedagogical university students

Análisis de diferencias de género en indicadores de identidad profesional de estudiantes universitarios pedagógicos

Elena Alexandrovna GNATYSHINA 1; Natalia Viktorovna UVARINA 2; Artem Arkadievich SALAMATOV 3; Aleksey Viktorovich SAVCHENKOV 4; Natalia Alexandrovna PAKHTUSOVA 5

Received: 15/03/2018 • Approved: 20/04/2018

Contents

1. Urgency of the problem

2. Theoretical basis of the research

3. Empirical base of the research

4. Results

5. Conclusion and suggestions

References

1. Urgency of the problem

The authors’ choice of this research area is due to several main factors.Young people studying at the university, face with a large number of external landmarks in their development, they have not fully formed structural components of personality, namely, value-semantic orientations, spirituality, ethics, motivational and volitional sphere, and the fragmentarity of personal boundaries. All of the above eventually leads to increased anxiety, lack of self-confidence and abilities, loss of control over their own lives that ultimately results in the experience of normative identity crisis. In the authors’ opinion, well-formed professional identity of students serves an indicator of readiness for professional activities in a particular area, as well as is a solid basis for the realization of their professional relevance and personal development in general. We consider professional identity as one of the factors determining the optimal level of educational activity of students.

In light of recent changes occurring in the economy, it should be recognized that professional identity is important not only for the human himself as a significant factor in his integration into society, the ability to find himself in changing circumstances, but also for society in general, with its constantly increasing requirements for the quality and mobility of the employee.

The phenomenon of "identity crisis" is quite important for this study. Agreeing with N. Samoilyk (2012), we believe that this term can designate a wide group of psychological factors, which have a combination of negative consequences for the personality. Identity crisis has an impact on the success in teaching and professional activities, the ability of students to adapt to university environment and generate the motivation necessary to succeed in both education and future careers.

An important factor that prompted the authors to this study is the insufficient exploration of the problem related to gender differences in the formation of professional identity. How different will be the ability of young male and female to take responsibility for important decisions in difficult life situations, identify themselves to the changing norms and values? Who will be inclined to get into situation of uncertainty, to doubt their own abilities (Gorshkov and Sedov 2015)?

We will consider the professional identity issue in combination with the analysis of the original concepts of "professional identity", "identification", and "gender differences". These concepts form the terminological space of the research, today they are often used both in research and practice. At that, each individual study has many approaches to the interpretation of these terms, and thus we have to resort to the specification and analysis of their structure.

2. Theoretical basis of the research

 Statement of the professional identity problem, the definition of essence and structure of this concept, and conditions of its formation are ongoing challenges not only because of the aforementioned identity crisis of today's youth, but also urgent with regard to the education objectives of young person, his personal development, self-discovery, spirituality, etc. The problem of professional identity, its practice-oriented focus, the structural components and their description, the methods and forms of its development in the late XX – early XXI century are studied in works of domestic and foreign scholars such as: S.V. Anishchenko, A.A., Azbel, L.N. Vavilov, I.N. Galasyuk, L.A. Grigorovich, E.F. Zeer, Z.V. Ermakov, V.A. Kuzmina, V.M. Prosekov, N.L. Regush, E. Toffler, V.D. Shadrikov, L.B. Schneider, O.I. Shutova, E. Erickson et al.).

In most scientific studies, professional identity is considered as the personal component, providing personality successful professional adaptation and interest to the profession, as well as one of the indicators of professional suitability, internal regulator providing self-identity and its development in the professional sphere.

In the explanatory dictionary of D.N. Ushakov, identity is considered as sameness, equivalence, and similarity (Ushakov 2014). Collins dictionary interprets this concept as the individual characteristics of the person, distinguishing him from others, his unique attributes and abilities (Collins Dictionary, n. d.). According to the E. Erikson's theory, identity can be seen as internal continuity, the integrity, man's self-identity. The identity is the main structural component of self-actualization. This is the realization by human of his peculiarity (selfishness), value acceptance of personality traits, and at the same time, the value attitude to a particular social community (Gertsog, Danilova, Korneev, Savchenkov and Uvarina 2017; Shutova 2012).

In the works of E.F. Zeer and E.E. Simaniuk (2005), professional development is seen as the transformation of the individual into professional, that implies the presence of a person's ideas about himself as a person and professional, the definition of his professional self-determination. Zeer E.F. also associates the development of professional identity with experience of the professional crises, because exactly periods of crisis are sensitive to professional identity formation.

Schneider L.B. (2004) in his research examines professional identity as the individual's consciousness of his identity with the professional community, assessment of his influence and attitude to the community, a sense of his professional competence, readiness to perform professional activities, and professional competence.

Researchers T.V. Mishchenko and Yu.P. Povarenkov (2006) consider professional identity within three main concepts: 1) as an emotional state experienced by the person at different stages of professional life, emotional attitude to the profession, and the claims of the person associated with his profession; 2) as a leading indicator of professional development; and 3) structural component of personality, aimed at achieving a certain level of professionalism.

The studies of G.A. Gertsog (2017) and coauthors highlighted a number of factors contributing to formation of professional identity during the training period at the university, namely the opportunity to fulfill his potential within the profession; conditions for the development of professional needs, interests, and claims; the prestige of the profession and the opportunity to find in the future a job according to the profession obtained at the university.

In the thesis research of P.V. Smirnova (2006), the author notes that professional identity is the ability to identify with the profession, a mechanism of personality socialization and individualization. According to A.A. Ozerina (2012), professional identity is psychosocial characteristic of the personality, which has a certain dynamic structure, as well as involves the formation of person’s opinion concerning the professional group, his status in this group, experiences of belonging to this group that in combination contributes to person’s professional development.

Based on the above definitions, we understand the professional identity as the attribute of the personality, which includes a set of value-based, motivational, cognitive and personality traits that contribute to his identification with the profession, the adoption of profession’s values and norms, the desire to achieve a certain level of professionalism within this profession.

Due to the phenomenon of identity, the individual is aware of who he is in the world of people, professions, nations, etc. Identity can be interpreted as the concordance of image of "I" of a human to his life embodiment in a variety of areas, including professional area.

Professional identity is directly associated with the professional identification of the student which we understand as a system of methods of targeted direct and indirect influence on student’s personality, professional outlook, motivations for professional development and self-development in conditions of educational space of the university, determined by the diversity of teaching and educational process, traditions, norms, and culture in general. Professional identity can be seen as the result of a student’s education at the university, the objective and subjective experience of his unity with the professional group and professional environment, work activities, professional figure (who is the paragon of the profession), conditioning the continuity of professional characteristics of the personality (norms, values, worldviews, experiences, roles and statuses).

The professional identity of the individual is largely influenced by socio-cultural environment in which the process of professional identification takes place. In this study, socio-cultural identification is understood as purposeful, integrated impacts of the socio-cultural environment of the university on the social, cultural, ethical, and professional behavior and competency of future specialists' personality.

The need for the formulation and clarification of these concepts is dictated by the fact that the professional identity of the student is formed and developed in the course of professional training in a socio-cultural environment of the university, in the space of self-determination, self-organization and personalization processes.

Professional identity of the student and that of the specialist are not identical terms, because they differ by specific content of objectives, characteristics of educational and professional activity and level of completeness of the desired quality, but at the same time the professional identity of the student and the specialist has successive and mutually conditional character.

The process of professional identity formation in students at the university is associated with the acquisition of the "I" in the profession, a system of ideas about themselves in the profession ("I am real" and "I am ideal") based on which students will build their interaction with other people within the profession, and determine their place in the world of professions.

In the research the authors proceed from the idea that the professional identity of students in the course of training at the university has its own peculiarities based on gender differences. In the authors’ opinion, professional identity is related to gender identity, which is understood as the basic structural component of social identity that characterizes individual from the viewpoint of his belonging to male or female group. At that, gender identity can be correlated not only with gender-role behavior, but also with the person’s image as a professional.

Gender traits of personality have an impact on development of both socio-cultural and professional identity. They are associated with self-esteem, self-control, reflexivity, and predictability. The mechanism of integrating a gender component means the achievement by personality of internal consistency between gender stereotypes of behavior within the frameworks of particular profession and the personal manifestations (Gulina, Dmitriev and Savel'ev 2010). The success in socio-psychological adaptation in the framework of the professional activity is largely dependent on the acceptance of their gender identity, gender behaviors and value orientations in professional activities.

Analyzing a large number of theoretical studies on the problem of professional identity, we have come to the conclusion that it is possible to distinguish three main structural components, which will serve the criteria of the professional identity formation:

• the value-based component includes students’ views about the values associated with the selected profession, as well as meanings and ideals associated with the chosen profession, and the integration of professional values into general value-based picture of the world;
• the cognitive component involves knowledge that facilitates development and self-development processes, acting as a leading condition for the development of competences and expertise in the course of professional learning;
• the personal component includes the necessary skills and personality traits required for future professional activity, as well as the formation of relatively stable self-image in the profession ("I" - concept).

Certainly, a number of factors that affect the professional identification process are much more than those listed above. But the aim of the research was studying the influence of precisely the factors listed above.

3. Empirical base of the research

Professional Pedagogical Institute of the South Ural Humanitarian-Pedagogical University served the basis of the present research. The study involved 182 bachelor students specializing in the following courses: vocational training in majors "Decorative arts and design", "Economics and management", "Transportation", "Food products manufacturing", and "Law and law enforcement". Among students were 120 girls and 62 boys. Such significant gender differences in the sample can be explained by the popularity of pedagogy among girls and the reduced interest on the part of boys.

Training of teachers of noted profile is carried out to provide professional educational organizations (former institutions of primary vocational education and modern institutions of secondary vocational education) of the Chelyabinsk Region with the qualified staff, implementing the special and general technical disciplines according to the proper educational standard, as well as organizing industrial training. Qualification of the pedagogical staff of such profile is of a dual nature. On the one hand, the teacher of this profile must possess the professional competencies prescribed for the teacher, while on the other hand, the teacher is the carrier of professional knowledge and, most importantly, the carrier of the engineering and creative professionally important skills in a given area. Exactly this specificity of professional pedagogical education makes it relevant to study the professional identity, namely its structural components, development dynamics, conditions of its formation at the university and in the course of students’ practical training.

The research methods included the following diagnostic methodologies: a methodology of studying professional identity (MIPI) by L.B. Schneider, the professional identity questionnaire designed by A.A. Ozerinay (2010), a methodology for studying the professional identity statuses by A.A. Asabell, and a questionnaire developed by the authors. The choice of these diagnostics methods was due to the fact that exactly these methods helped to identify the professional identity of students.

4. Results

The results of the diagnostic research in accordance with the Asabell’s methodology of studying the professional identity statuses are presented in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1
Comparative results of the level of professional
identity formation in boys and girls of student age

Analyzing the data of Table 1, we revealed that just 12.90% of boys and 15.00% of girls had strongly pronounced status of well-formed professional identity. In the 14.52% of boys and 20.83% of girls, this factor manifested moderately. This group of boys and girls is characterized by conscious choice of further personal development within their chosen profession. At that, they are confident in the correctness of their choice and a professional future in general. This category of future specialists easier adapts in the workplace, perceives the norms and values of the team, and integrates them into own axiological picture of the world. Respondents in this category have already gone through a "crisis of choice" or "identity crisis". They have formed knowledge system about themselves, professional values, and life beliefs. They have decided what exactly they want to achieve in the future and are consciously building their path of life. It is worth noting that the well-formed professional identity is more characteristic for girls, that in turn testifies the fact that girls are more socially and professionally adapted.

We can also assume that the socio-cultural environment of the university (Table 1), defined by the interaction and cooperation of all subjects of educational process in the sphere of their joint educational and cultural-educational activities has had a positive effect on the dynamics of ideological attitudes and values of this group of students, thus contributing to the formation of professional identity of the student's personality (Savchenkov 2017).

Vague and imposed state of professional identity was generally revealed in 43.38% of boys and 43.43% of girls. The status of uncertainty of this category of respondents is characterized by the fact that students do not have career goals and plans, and do not try to define them, to build their professional development options. This group of students does not feel respect to their parents, teachers, and friends. Choosing future profession and training specialization at the university they do not correlate it with their skills and abilities. These students prefer to live according to their current desires and deeds, not realizing fully the importance of choosing a future profession. Further this can lead to frustration.

Forced or imposed professional condition prevails in about 11.28% of boys and 10.1% of girls, and is characterized by the fact that respondents are making all major life choices under the influence of parents, friends, teachers, and other loved ones, while independent choice always causes them trouble. Boys and girls in this status almost do not feel anxiety about their professional future, because their professional choice is characterized by consistency and stability, though is entirely dependent on decision-making persons. Boys, characterized by imposed professional identity, are prone to self-doubt, and are very dependent on the advice of others.

A moratorium or a crisis in choice of profession was identified in the 24.20% of boys and 20.83% of girls. This category of students avoids the issues concerning choosing future profession and associated values. They make an accent on satisfaction associated with various pleasures that undoubtedly affects the success of their learning activities. The girls having experienced choice crisis often run to a large number of unresolved conflicts associated with choosing a future career and family plans.

Table 2
Gender differences in the maturity of
professional identity in university students

The data in Table 2 testify that 35.83% of girls and 27.42% of boys are characterized by dominated status of well-formed professional identity. Significantly more girls (by 8.41%) have better social adaptation than boys, since they are not affected by negative external social influences, as well as are self-confident and consciously approach to the selection of future profession. A worrying factor is that the status of uncertain professional identity dominates in 37.10% of boys and 33.33% of the girls. This can testify the fact that the educational trajectory passed by the students and, to a greater extent, the professional experience acquired during the practical training, did not have a significant impact on the process of their professional identification.

The importance of the different professional values for the future socio-cultural development of the student’s personality was identified using a specially developed questionnaire, the results of which are presented in Table 3. Respondents were asked to choose multiple answers.  

Table 3
Respondents' assessment of the importance of
professional values for success in their future job

Assessment of the importance of professional values by boys and girls also differs significantly. Boys give priority to values such as knowledge, adequate remuneration of labor, positive appraisal of labor by the executives (that indicates the predominance of external locus control), the prestige of the profession, integrated professional skills, and the opportunity for career growth, while girls attach greater importance to the positive evaluation of their work results by peers (that also indicates the predominance of external locus control), professional knowledge, prestige of the profession, adequate remuneration, positive evaluation by students of the teacher’s work in professional learning. It should be noted that knowledge that facilitates professional development and self-development as a value and the cognitive component of professional identity has been highly evaluated by the overwhelming majority of students regardless of their gender (Table 3).

The opportunity of professional communication in the team is important to most girls (61.66%), and only to one third of boys (38.71%), i.e. the majority of the boys do not consider the opportunity to communicate in the framework of their professional activity as the value component of professional identity, while girls have shown a reverse trend. The acquisition of professional links is important to boys (59.67%) and not so important to girls (35%), i.e. for them the important is the opportunity to work at their beloved profession, and not the opportunities which will be provided by the profession in the future. Creative nature of labor, as it has been expected, is significant for girls (77.50%), and less significant for boys (38.71%). Girls tend to consider professional activity not only as a means of material income, but also as an opportunity for creative development, while the profession of vocational training teacher provides all the recourses necessary for creative development. This fact can explain the tendency for the successful employment of girls in vocational education institutions as compared with boys.

Priorities sorted out by the students once again indicate that boys give significant priority to material wealth, while girls prefer the opportunities for self-development within profession and its importance to others. The priority given by both boys and girls to importance of receiving deep professional knowledge evidences about the influence of the well-formed professional identity on the personality activity with respect to professional competencies acquired in the course of study at the university. It can be assumed that the more deeply students understand the essence of the chosen profession and are satisfied with their professional choice, the more successful the mastery of competencies.

The results of the diagnostic study in the frameworks of the questionnaire of professional identity developed by A.A. Ozerina are presented in Table 4. 

Table 4
Gender differences in the formedness of professional identity elements

Analyzing the data of Table 4, we have revealed that about half of the boys (54.84%) and girls (55.00%) have definite professional plans, are aware of their professional future, and wish to implement career (Uvarina 2013), while the other half of the respondents has no clear and structured plans concerning future careers and are not sure of their feasibility that undoubtedly is an alarming trend. The overwhelming majority of girls (67.50%) have their own deliberate and independent educational and professional plans, while majority of boys (of 56.45%) prefer socially desirable borrowed plans.

The majority of boys, namely 80.65%, and just 61.66% of girls are emotionally satisfied with their professional choice, and they have willingness to be engaged in their professions in the future. It is worth noting that exactly boys are increasingly perceiving chosen profession, as a way of self-fulfillment. About 2/3 of respondents of both genders have manifested strong rational values regarding the chosen profession, and realistically assess the professional picture of the world (Table 4). In the authors’ opinion, it is the emotional perception of future profession that is the basis for successful adaptation to the future professional activity.

Clearly formed standard of the skilled professional with whom students identify themselves was noted in 58.06% of boys and 70.83% of girls, i.e. girls largely gave personal meaning to the image of the profession, and approached to the choice of profession meaningfully and thoroughly. Most girls, namely 57.50% and just of 41.94% of boys are characterized by an active professional attitude, understand their status in the future profession, identify themselves with the profession, and demonstrate the belonging to a certain professional group. At the same time, definite professional attitude has been manifested to a greater extent in girls, since they are more proactive. Professional status in girls (74.17%), in contrast to boys (51.61%) is independent. They are aware of their autonomy and independence in the framework of identification with the profession, while boys, to a greater extent take a dependent position, relying on the opinion of loved ones.

An adequate assessment of own professional capabilities and opportunities in implementation of professional goals is typical for the vast majority of boys (91.94%) and girls (91.66%). At that, about half of the respondents rely on the existence of personal criteria when conducting self-assessment, which results from their reflection. Exactly half of girls and approximately the same number of boys (46.66%) consider their future profession prestigious and attribute positive characteristics to their professional group. Girls (64.52%) are characterized to a greater extent by the differentiation of their professional group with respect to other groups based on the prestige of the future profession.

Summarizing the above we can conclude that most boys are emotionally satisfied with their professional choice, while the other structural components of professional identity are largely formed among the girls, and hence they show greater readiness for future professional activity, because we consider professional identity as one of the components of professional competence.

5. Conclusion and suggestions

In general, the study has allowed:

- to perform theoretical analysis of works presented by domestic and foreign researchers on concerned issue, formulate definition of professional identity based on different concepts, clarifying the basic concepts of "gender identity", "professional identity", and "social and cultural identity"; besides, in the structure of professional identity, which is based on the specifics of the university students socialization process, we have identified and analyzed the axiological, cognitive, and personality components;

- to reveal the specificity of the professional identity formation in boys and girls at the empirical level, noting that girls are mainly characterized by well-formed professional identity, they are more socially and professionally tailored; when choosing specialty, girls more often rely on own personal opinion, while boys rely as a rule on the opinion of loved ones; among the important professional values, boys note an adequate remuneration of labor and prestige of the profession, while girls consider positive assessment of their work results by peers to be important factor; the prevalence of professional knowledge among significant values of both boys and girls is a gratifying fact; in general, girls showed themselves to be more prepared and adapted to professional work than boys.

- to reveal based on the analysis of empirical data that half of students regardless of gender have well-formed professional identity; other students should be convinced by actors of the university socio-cultural environment to master double profession demanded by the regional labor market; it is exactly training in acquiring double profession that will enable them actualizing themselves not only in the frameworks of teaching profession, but also within another selected area of professional activity.

This study is of an applied nature and does not claim to be universal. Its goal is including in the scientific discourse the problem of gender differences in the formation of professional identity and their consideration when building the educational and socio-cultural environment of professional pedagogical university. 

References

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1. Southern Ural State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University, 454080, Russia, Chelyabinsk, Lenin Ave., 76

2. Southern Ural State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University, 454080, Russia, Chelyabinsk, Lenin Ave., 76

3. Southern Ural State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University, 454080, Russia, Chelyabinsk, Lenin Ave., 76

4. Southern Ural State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University, 454080, Russia, Chelyabinsk, Lenin Ave., 76. e-mail: alex2107@mail.ru

5. Southern Ural State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University, 454080, Russia, Chelyabinsk, Lenin Ave., 76