Comparing Collective and Personal Professional Theories of Experienced Practitioners

A characteristic of becoming a professional is the internalisation of the Collective Professional Theory (CPT), the shared insights of experienced practitioners. A problem arises when different opinions stemming from practitioners’ Personal Professional Theories (PPTs), obscure a CPT’s content. This study argues that groups of cooperating practitioners have well-defined CPTs, which together constitute a field. The relations between CPTs, PPTs and fields are studied in case studies under accountants and teachers. In each domain a representation of a CPT was constructed and compared with PPTs. The results indicate that CPTs are more complex than PPTs and the structure of the two fields differs locally. Compared to the CPTs of teachers, differences between the CPTs of accountants are smaller. Such insights in CPTs are important for education because socialisation in a domain may be fostered if one is aware of CPTs and the surrounding field in relation to one’s PPT.