Educational Transitions

Moving Stories from Around the World

Divya Jindal-Snape

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135281410
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Despite variations of educational systems, when transitions in education occur, the pedagogical challenges that teachers and pupils undergo are quite similar across the globe. Transitions are phases in which pupils, peer groups and teachers have to renegotiate and rebuild their learning environment in the educational context. These various transitions in students' learning paths significantly impact on schools' everyday life. This volume explores transitions at all stages of educational progression, i.e., nursery to primary, primary to secondary, and secondary to post-school. It also examines these transitions across a variety of countries and types of schools. Educational Transitions provides up-to-date literature, research and theoretical constructs that help readers understand the issues, social-emotional-psychological dimensions, and evidence-based possible interventions to support an individual through these educational transitions. It also allows scholars, teachers, and students to critically analyse how lessons learned from one country can be adapted for other countries' educational systems.

1
Setting the Scene

Educational Transitions and Moving Stories

Divya Jindal-Snape

This chapter briefly reports on the concept of educational transition and sets the context for the concept of transition from the perspective of this book and the authors. This chapter makes connections between the five parts and previews all the chapters for the reader.

EDUCATIONAL TRANSITIONS

Transition involves moving from one context and set of interpersonal relationships to another. Newman and Blackburn (2002) have defined transition as any episode of potentially challenging change that a child might experience, such as progressing through developmental stages, bereavement, leaving care, etc. In today’s changing world, individuals make several transitions at home, in an educational context and at work.

In an educational context, transition, also referred to as ‘transfer’ and ‘moving on,’ has been conceptualized in various ways. Some of the literature tends to focus on the skills of the children and young people, and how they deal with any change in the context and/or setting. Others have focused on the role of significant others, such as the professionals, family and the community (e.g., Jindal-Snape & Foggie, 2008). Some have conceptualized transition as a single event which marks the completion of one stage and signals the beginning of another stage in the educational journey. Others look at transition as an ongoing process that focuses on interactions between the child and peers, teachers, and families. They, therefore, emphasize that the experience of transition needs to be understood from these multiple perspectives and how the stakeholders in the process make sense of ongoing changes.

In this book the focus is on educational transitions that children and young people make from one educational context to another. In some cases this involves transition to a formal educational setting, moving across different stages of education, moving from one school to another, from educational context to employment, and moving from one country to another. Many of these children and young people make this transition successfully and for some it involves adaptation and adjustment over a longer time. It is important to note that transition is satisfying and fulfilling for some, and individuals yearn for this change and the opportunity to ‘move on’ and ‘move up’ with increased choices (Jindal-Snape & Foggie, 2008; Lucey & Reay, 2000). However, some find it challenging and stressful. This period is not challenging for children and young people alone. It can cause anxiety for parents/carers and family, with some finding it equally difficult to adapt to changing systems, ‘unspoken rules’ of institutions, expectations of them as parents/carers, as well as the additional responsibility of working through this with their child at home. Similarly, professionals working with these children, young people, and families have to learn to implement new strategies according to their varying needs and ways of dealing with transition.

In most countries, transition to school normally is in the age range of 5 to 7 years, and signals a transition from a play-based and informal curriculum to a more formal one (Fabian, 2002). This transition then carries on from local primary to a much bigger secondary school, followed by transition to tertiary education or employment. It seems that despite the variation of educational systems, pupil’s age, or country, when they face these transitions the pedagogical, social, and emotional challenges which pupils, parents, and professionals undergo are quite similar (see, for example, Adeyemo, 2007; Akos, 2004; Dockett & Perry, 2001; Eccles, Wigfield, Midgley, Reuman, Mac Iver, & Feldlaufer, 1993; Jindal-Snape & Foggie, 2008). In other words, these various transitions in pupils’ learning path significantly impact on their everyday life. Therefore, transitions are phases in which pupils, peer groups, and teachers have to constantly rebuild their learning environment in the educational context.

MOVING STORIES

As previously mentioned, the focus in this book is on transition or ‘moving on.’ This moving on or moving up is from one educational context to another— preschool to primary, primary to secondary, and secondary to post-school. The book has captured ‘moving on’ stories from different countries, theoretical perspectives and interventions, giving the reader a chance to see how these issues are similar or different and giving the feeling of moving around the world. Again, the book captures how the stories constantly change for the same child or young person as he/she works through the changes. Most importantly, these stories are not only about us writing them as objective researchers and professionals, these are stories that have moved us along with the children and young people directly affected by them, and moved us in our thinking about how to meet the challenges of transition.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CHAPTERS

As can be seen, educational transitions can be very complex for pupils at different stages of their educational progression. This book explores transition at various stages of educational progression, and in different contexts across several countries, theoretical perspectives, interventions, small/large schools, etc. This book encompasses contributions from experts from the field of transitions, who are well grounded in theory, practice, and research, and is a book which is truly internationally relevant and will lead to a more in-depth insight into this very important educational aspect.

This book addresses various stages of educational transition, that is, nursery to primary, primary to secondary, and secondary to post-school. Within these stages, literature review, research, interventions, and gaps in literature and research have been detailed within the context of different countries and learners with varied needs. There are four main parts: transitions and theoretical understanding of the processes, transition from preschool to primary school, transition from primary to secondary school, and transition to post-school. The fifth part concludes the book.

Part I: Transitions and Theoretical Understanding of the Processes

Chapters 2 and 3 explore the theoretical dimensions of all stages of educational transitions and areas requiring further research and improvement in practice, with a focus on resilience, self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy. Chapter 2 focuses on the theoretical and empirical work in the area of resilience and self-esteem to help illuminate how processes of transition can impact upon children over this important period in their lives. Resilience has been chosen because it focuses on a range of factors (both within individuals and in their immediate environment) that influence whether and how these individuals are able to cope with a period of adversity or threat. As argued by Jindal-Snape and Miller in this chapter, for many children and young people transition does constitute such a period of potential threat. They have also used self-esteem theory, specifically, that which emphasizes the duality of self-esteem, to provide insights into the socio-emotional processes experienced by the children and young people. They detail how this two-dimensional theory of self-esteem rests upon the belief that an individual’s self-esteem is dependent upon two types of judgment: the extent to which one feels worthy of respect from others, and competent to face the challenges which lie ahead. This theoretical perspective alerts us to a range of challenges to an individual’s worth and competence which are likely to occur during this transition period. They discuss the nature and source of these messages and outline some implications for academics, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

In Chapter 3, Adeyemo employs theoretical perspectives from literature and research on emotional intelligence to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and successful transition. He argues that emotions, though very important, have been somewhat overlooked in transition literature and research. In this chapter he explores the development of emotional intelligence intervention and its effect on adjustment of students during transition. This chapter presents an experimental application of emotional intelligence to enhancement of adjustment among university freshmen. Academic self-efficacy was used as the moderating variable. Participants were pre-tested and post-tested by using relevant and validated instruments. He employed appropriate statistical tools to determine intervention effectiveness in enhancing adjustment of students in transition.

Part II: Transition from Early Years Setting to Primary School

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 focus on literature and research regarding decisions and issues related to readiness for school and moving from preschool to primary school, with special focus on lessons to be learnt from the UK, New Zealand, and the US. In Chapter 4, Hannah, Gorton, and JindalSnape have considered the concept of school readiness in relation to the move to formal schooling. They explore how the outcomes of the research studies have shifted the debate from whether age is a useful or valid indicator of school readiness to looking at the range of definitions and models of school readiness that have been developed. They argue that an effective way to help children start school successfully is through ensuring that an effective transition process occurs. They present a Scottish case study on the perspectives of parents regarding their and their child’s experience of moving to primary school, using an ecological systems framework. Implications for policy and practice, and possibilities for future research, have been highlighted.

In Chapter 5, Peters highlights the complexity of children’s transition journeys, drawing on sociocultural and ecological perspectives, whilst acknowledging that notions of capital, drawing on sociology, and rites of passage, from anthropology, are also useful in coming to understand transition experiences. She presents this is in the context of New Zealand which has a new school curriculum, which, with its focus on key competencies takes a different approach to learning than the previous curriculum documents. She suggests that this theoretically offers the potential for teachers to connect more easily with children’s learning in early childhood settings, and to enhance their early experiences of school. She supports and illustrates her arguments by findings from a number of projects with teachers including a three-year Teaching and Learning Research Initiative exploring learning dispositions and key competencies in early childhood and school settings, and a three-year Centre of Innovation project looking at transitions and ‘border crossing.’ She compares these with earlier data from her Ph.D. work to illustrate the potential of the 2007 curriculum, whilst considering the implications for children and teachers.

In Chapter 6, Mayer, Amendum, and Vernon-Feagans explore transitions from the perspective of children’s successful literacy development and the concept of ‘ready schools.’ They report that children in the US enter primary school from a variety of early care settings and with differences in their early knowledge of, and experiences with, reading and writing. They suggest that children who experience similar environments and expectations in early care settings and school have less difficulty in the transition to school than children whose early care and school cultures differ. This chapter synthesizes existing research on the transition to school and the relationship with the characteristics of children, families, teachers, and schools and communities in order to identify implications for practitioners, as well as areas in need of further research.

Part III: Transition from Primary to Secondary School

Chapters 7, 8, and 9 explore primary to secondary school transition issues, literature review, research, and interventions in a variety of geographical contexts from the UK, the US, and Finland. In Chapter 7, Galton outlines the context of major school transitions for adolescents in England, reviews the literature/policy in that context, looks at existing theories, explores the identified issues, and presents some empirical findings related to the issues and interventions. Building on a recent review he suggests that the patterns of transfer (who is at risk and why such pupils are at risk, etc.) have shown little change over three decades. This chapter then explores data from his recent study regarding the reactions of pupils as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. Cases cover both pupils who settled easily into the new school and those who experienced difficulty. He makes suggestions for improving the transition process.

In Chapter 8, Akos outlines the context of major school transitions for early adolescents in the US. He highlights the outcomes and empirical research that document risk and opportunity in these transitions. He discusses the concurrent personal and contextual change in the transition from elementary to middle school, as well as the contemporary educational reform efforts (e.g., Smaller Learning Communities) to engage ninth grade students. Further, additional configurations (e.g., K–8 schools, elemiddle, K–12 schools) in the US and the related transitions are explored. He makes an argument for more intentional strengths building (e.g., coping skills) with studen...

Table of contents

• Routledge Research in Education
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Setting the Scene
• Part I Transitions and Theoretical Understanding of the Processes
• Part II Transition from Early Years Setting to Primary School
• Part III Transition from Primary to Secondary School
• Part IV Transition to Post-School
• Part V Conclusions
• Contributors
• Author Index