Transitions and Learning Through the Lifecourse

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

Kathryn Ecclestone is Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK.
Gert Biesta is Professor of Education at the Stirling Institute of Education, University of Stirling, UK.
Martin Hughes is Professor of Education at the University of Bristol, UK.

List of tables and figures List of contributors Foreword by John Field Acknowledgements 1. TRANSITIONS IN THE LIFECOURSE: THE ROLE OF IDENTITY, AGENCY AND STRUCTURE Kathryn Ecclestone, Gert Biesta and Martin Hughes 2. THE DAILY TRANSITION BETWEEN HOME AND SCHOOL Martin Hughes, Pamela Greenhough, Wan Ching Yee and Jane Andrews 3. TRANSGRESSION FOR TRANSITION? WHITE URBAN MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES MAKING AND MANAGING ‘AGAINST THE GRAIN’ SCHOOL CHOICES David James and Phoebe Beedell 4. READING AND WRITING THE SELF AS A COLLEGE STUDENT: FLUIDITY AND AMBIVALENCE ACROSS CONTEXTS Candice Satchwell and Roz Ivanic 5. MANAGING TRANSITIONS IN SKILLS FOR LIFE Mary Hamilton 6. THE TRANSITION FROM VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING TO HIGHER EDUCATION: A SUCCESSFUL PATHWAY? Michael Hoelscher, Geoff Hayward, Hubert Ertl and Harriet Dunbar-Goddet 7. DISABLED STUDENTS AND TRANSITIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION Elisabet Weedon and Sheila Riddell 8. RETHINKING ‘FAILED TRANSITIONS’ TO HIGHER EDUCATION Jocey Quinn 9. TIME IN LEARNING TRANSITIONS THROUGH THE LIFECOURSE: A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE Helen Colley 10. WORKING AS BELONGING: THE MANAGEMENT OF PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES Alan Felstead, Dan Bishop, Alison Fuller, Nick Jewson, Lorna Unwin and Kostantinos Kakavelakis 11. ADULTS LEARNING IN AND THROUGH THE WORKPLACE Karen Evans and Edmund Waite 12. OLDER WORKERS’ TRANSITIONS IN WORK-RELATED LEARNING, CAREERS AND IDENTITIES Jenny Bimrose and Alan Brown 13. MANAGING AND SUPPORTING THE VULNERABLE SELF Kathryn Ecclestone Index