Professional identity development in digitally mediated work-integrated learning: a longitudinal qualitative study of paid online tutoring

Purpose This study examines how non-preservice university students developed professional identities through sustained paid online tutoring within a university-designed work-integrated learning (WIL) program. Pupil outcomes were outside the study scope. Design/methodology/approach Using a longitudinal qualitative design, this study combined narrative inquiry and video-reflexive ethnography across seven semesters (Fall 2022–Fall 2025). Seventeen tutors who participated for four to seven semesters contributed 89 reflective reports and 47 purposively selected recordings of tutoring sessions. Findings Analysis identified three overlapping interpretive orientations of professional identity development: Transactional Technician, Adaptive Designer, and Holistic Mentor. Across time, tutors demonstrated changes in role metaphors, learner framing, motivational descriptions, and instructional practice. Changes in wait-time practices and in interpretations of learner silence were consistent with these shifts. Narrative and interactional data together provided convergent qualitative indications of evolving professional orientations rather than evidence of uniform developmental progression across participants. Participants described compensation as supporting accountability and continued participation, while Serial Matching, Collaborative Curriculum Design, and video-reflexive review provided recurring contexts for reflection, adaptation, and professional identity work. Research limitations/implications The findings concern sustained participants and are subject to survivorship bias. The single-site, non-comparative qualitative design supports contextual interpretation and longitudinal association, not causal claims about program effects. Originality/value The study provides longitudinal qualitative evidence of professional identity development among non-preservice university students engaged in paid online tutoring and shows how established concepts of professional identity formation and identity work operate in a setting where participants lack formal professional preparation. Its contribution is analytical and contextual rather than theoretical or predictive.