A Bio-ecological Perspective on Educational Transition

Experiences of educational transition have been identified in the literature as critical to the future educational success of children, and to their psychological and developmental well-being [1]. In spite of this, there is limited information on how families interact with educational establishments at times of transition, what measures encourage positive engagement, and how children and families experience transitions [2]. This paper reports the initial findings of a qualitative examination of two key periods of educational transition, preschool to primary school and primary school to secondary school. It explores the perspectives of children, teachers and parents in a case study primary school in Ireland, along with the three pre-schools that feed into it, and the two secondary schools into which it feeds. The theoretical framework for this research is provided by Bronfenbrenner's Bio- ecological Model of Child Development, and presentation of findings is structured using Bronfenbrenner's (1995 [3] Person- Process-Context-Time (PPCT) model.