1. Developing an authentic professional identity on role- emerging placements NAEP Conference 2013 Dr CHANNINE CLARKE Senior Lecturer / Placement Tutor University of Brighton

2. Role-emerging placements?? Role emerging placements – “occur at sites where there is not an established occupational therapist role” (COT, 2006). Students supervised daily by on-site member of staff and supported by external OT supervisor Examples – homeless service, a children's charity in London, community forensic service, mental health charity in London, refugees, housing association.

3. My PhD study -Why use these placements? -Research questions? -Interpretative phenomenological analysis used for study with 5 students – post placement and 6 months after graduating.

4. Findings relevant to today? REP’s appear to be an important pedagogic opportunity for helping students develop a more authentic sense of self, the profession and what it means to be an OT Not just about learning to ‘do’ OT but more about ‘being’ an OT- developing a professional way of being (Dall’Alba 2009). They had to work this out for themselves in absence of role model- think about an iceberg analogy Tells me something about the relationship between student and educator on traditional placements – requires a shift in approach to PBE : let the student learn, more self-directed learning, deeper critical thinking to form own authentic understandings