Beginning Correctional and Police Officers: Developing a Professional Voice and Sense of Belonging Through ba and anti-ba: In the Still of the Night, We Share Professional Stories

How might beginning professionals learn a sense of belonging founded upon the norms of the profession and acquire a professional gaze along with their professional voice? We argue for a conceptual model founded upon the interplay between navigating liminality, the art of “storying” and sharing professional experiences, and, lastly, recognising the importance of an enabling context captured by the Japanese concept of ba (from the Japanese word 場, meaning a shared meeting place for emerging relationships). The education of correctional and police officers offers illustrative examples of professional conversations that occur in an iterative fashion, often in confined places such as on night watch in an office or car setting. We contend that the art of “storying” professional experiences and story-sharing are key practices used to come to terms with and navigate critical events and accompanying sensations and experiences. We draw upon the seminal works of Rousseau and more contemporary educational theorists and conclude by proposing a programme of future research. The defining character of this contribution is to emphasise the importance of professional stories and storying that engage with rather than discount emotions. This underpins our desire to acknowledge the work of Rousseau known for “feeling before thinking,” and the work of Brecht, who asserted the priority of cognitive thought in emotionally charged aesthetic experiences.