Qualitative analysis of university professors' experiences of professional identity

The purpose of this study was to find out the perceptions and experiences of faculty members about the concept of professional identity. Professional identity provides an understanding of how and why particular teaching and learning approaches are used and shapes one's self-image as a faculty member and provides a framework for them on how to act and how perceive their work and role in society. Although there is no single definition of professors' professional identity that fits all university faculties, it is possible to identify specific core norms that all professors agree with. Understanding the professional identity of faculty members is a difficult but necessary task. The constituent factors of professors' professional identity should be sought in the context of their lives.

The Approach of study was qualitative and research method was phenomenography and it was conducted in Kurdistan University. The sampling method was purposive with maximum diversity and according to the theoretical saturation, by using semi-structured interview sample size arrived 14 peoples. The Sjostrom and Dahlgren (2002) seven-stage method used to coding and analyzing data.

The result of data analyze was elicitation five classes of description categories include: professional identity as (professional independence), (being ethical), (acting beyond boundaries), (creation) and (professional interaction), which illustrate the qualitative differences between faculty members' perceptions of professional identities and ways that they play multiple professional roles.