Māwhai: Webbing a professional identity through networked interprofessional communities of practice

Professional identity is a frequently used term in teacher education although there is little consensus of what it means for practice. Drawing on research in the fields of professional identity development, communities of practice and interprofessional practice, this article presents a framework for interprofessional identity development that supports effective practice within and across different disciplines. The Māwhai framework, which translates as both ‘web’ and ‘net’, enables professionals to ‘web’ interprofessional identities through ‘networks’ of interprofessional practice. The framework is first described and then evaluated using data from three cohorts of professional educators.