This book draws together a variety of detailed case studies to demonstrate the unique interaction between the past and the present which occurs within the professional education context. Using a psychosocial approach, Alan Bainbridge suggests that this process of identity or role formation requires the expectations and fantasies of the past to be negotiated at the unconscious, individual and social level. A focus on personal agency and dealing with the complexity inherent in education settings highlights the macro and micro negotiations new education professionals are required to undertake between the margins of the personal and professional to provide a more nuanced model for early professional development.

Alan Bainbridge is Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK and a Chartered Psychologist, Doctor of Clinical Science and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. Together with Linden West, Alan has edited Psychoanalysis and Education: Minding a Gap. He is the co-ordinator for the Faculty of Education Auto/biography and Narrative Research Theme Group.