Professional practices : commitment and capability in a changing environment / Tony Becher

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface --Part 1: Prospect --Part 2: Change -- Part 3: Commitment -- Part 4: Capability -- Part 5: Restrospect .

1. Prospect. 1. Introduction ; What this book is about ; Who the book is for ; Previous accounts of professions ; The specifics of the present study ; The method of inquiry ; The limitations of the approach ; Classifying and characterizing the professions ; The conventions adopted ; 2. The six professions ; A short prospectus ; Medicine ; Pharmacy ; Law ; Accountancy ; Architecture ; Structural engineering ; Relations between the professions ; Professional bodies and commercial agencies -- pt. 2. Change. 3. Pressures for change ; The sources of change ; The effects of legislation and national policy ; Economic pressures ; Internationalism ; Client attitudes ; The business ethos ; The rise of managerialism ; Knowledge development ; The emergence of specialisms ; The impact of information technology ; The cumulation of change -- pt. 3. Commitment. 4. Professional careers ; Career patterns ; The great and the small ; Recruitment and initial training ; Specialization and advanced qualifications ; The later career stages ; Career benefits and disbenefits ; Ending a career -- 5. Women professionals ; Structural issues ; Forms of gender discrimination ; The demands of domesticity ; The channeling of careers ; Social deprivations ; Attitudes and feelings ; The picture in perspective -- pt. 4. Capability. 6. Continuing professional development ; Definitions, origins, and purposes ; Formal requirements and the related debate ; Providing and implementing CPD ; Practitioners' attitudes and motivation ; Aspects of course provision ; Contextual courses ; The margins of formality --7. Informal learning ; Some basic considerations ; Resource-based activities ; Practice-based activities ; Practice-related activities ; Interpersonal activities ; Characteristics of informal learning -- 8. Questions of quality ; Accountability and quality maintenance ; Rotten apples and whistle blowing ; Modes of procedure ; Organizationally based quality assurance ; Individually based quality assurance ; Organizationally based quality control ; Individually based quality control ; Quality and professional life -- pt. 5. Retrospect. 9. Conclusion ; The rationale in retrospect ; Variations and similarities ; Some potential implications -- Postscript: The role of the universities