An Autoethnographic Navigation of a Muslim Woman’s Transitioning Professional Identity

This paper is to understand the transitioning professional identity of a Muslim woman.This qualitative paper focused on the navigation of a Muslim woman's transitioning profession identity.The purpose of this paper was viewing my experiences as a Muslim woman through my educational journey from religious education to secular higher education identifying a professional identity shift.I therefore, recognize a gap, where my comfort zone was my Islamic environment and not an environment for professional growth.An interpretivist paradigm was used for my epistemological stance and my ontological stance was a realism.This paper was embedded in a conceptual framework, where I merge possible selves' theory and the Johari Window Model.The research design of the paper employed and autoethnographic design where the data was generated mainly from, personal narratives, artefacts, memory work and my research journal.For trustworthiness of the paper, co-constructors were identified and asked to verify my personal narratives.A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze my data to identify appropriate themes to answer my research questions.The findings of this paper focus on how my professional identity developed and all influences there after influence my professional identity especially from cultural and religious background and past experience.I was required to adapt and accept the internal external factors for developing my professional identity continuously in various context.