ABSTRACT

Like many ideas that inform policy, practice and research, ‘transition’ has many meanings. Children make a transition to adulthood, pupils move from primary to secondary school, and there is then a movement from school to work, training or further education. Transitions can lead to profound and positive change and be an impetus for new learning for some individuals and be unsettling, difficult and unproductive for others. Transitions have become a key concern for policy makers and the subject of numerous policy changes over the past ten years. They are also of interest to researchers and professionals working with different groups.

Transitions and Learning Through the Lifecourse examines transitions across a range of education, life and work settings. It explores the claim that successful transitions are essential for educational inclusion, social achievement, and economic prosperity and that individuals and institutions need to manage them more effectively.

Aimed primarily at academic researchers and students at all levels of study across a range of disciplines, including education, careers studies, sociology, feminist and cultural studies, this book is the first systematic attempt to bring together and evaluate insights about educational, life and work transitions from a range of different fields of research. Contributions include:

  • The transition between home and school
  • The effects of gender, class and age
  • Transitions to further and higher education
  • Transitions for students with disabilities
  • Transitions into the workplace
  • Learning within the workplace
  • Approaches to managing transitions

chapter 1|15 pages

Transitions in the lifecourse: The role of identity, agency and structure

ByKATHRYN ECCLESTONE, GERT BIESTA, MARTIN HUGHES

chapter 2|16 pages

The daily transition between home and school

ByMARTIN HUGHES, PAMELA GREENHOUGH, WAN CHING YEE

chapter 4|22 pages

Reading and writing the self as a college student: Fluidity and ambivalence across contexts

ByCANDICE SATCHWELL AND ROZ IVANICˇ

chapter 5|18 pages

Managing transitions in Skills for Life

ByMARY HAMILTON

chapter 6|16 pages

The transition from vocational education and training to higher education: A successful pathway?

ByMICHAEL HOELSCHER, GEOFF HAYWARD, HUBERT ERTL

chapter 7|15 pages

Disabled students and transitions in higher education

ByELISABET WEEDON, SHEILA RIDDELL

chapter 8|12 pages

Rethinking ‘failed transitions’ to higher education

ByJOCEY QUINN

chapter 10|15 pages

Working as belonging: The management of personal and collective identities

ByALAN FELSTEAD, DAN BISHOP, ALISON FULLER, NICK JEWSON

chapter 11|20 pages

Adults learning in and through the workplace

ByKAREN EVANS, EDMUND WAITE

chapter 12|15 pages

Older workers’ transitions in work-related learning, careers and identities

ByJENNY BIMROSE, ALAN BROWN

chapter 13|14 pages

Managing and supporting the vulnerable self

ByKATHRYN ECCLESTONE