An increased emphasis on an early start in group day care and educational settings for young children means that by the time children enter statutory education, they may already have had several transitional experiences: each will have an impact.
This book explores early transitions from a variety of international perspectives. Each chapter is informed by rigorous research and makes recommendations on how education professionals can better understand and support transitions in the early years. Contributors examine issues such as:
- Parental involvement in the transition to school
- Children's voices on the transition to primary school
- The construction of identity in the early years
Readers will be able to draw support, guidance and inspiration from the different writers to scaffold their own thinking and development in relation to children’s transitions. Ample opportunities are offered for readers to gain confidence and competence in dealing with the range of people involved in transitions, and to the benefit of everyone, not least the children, whose ‘transitions capital’ will grow.
Informing Transitions in the Early Years is essential reading for early years students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers.
Aline-Wendy Dunlop University of Strathclyde Aline-Wendy has taught in the university sector since 1993: first at Moray House Institute of Education in Edinburgh and from 1996 at the University of Strathclyde where she is a Professor and Chair of Childhood & Primary Studies in the Department of Childhood and Primary Studies. Her very varied teaching experience over 23 years in schools and the community included home visiting, training education staff in residential childcare, teaching SNNEB students, working with parents, special educational needs and mainstream early education. She is Lead Co-Director of the National Centre for Autism Studies. Her main areas of current research interest are leadership in early education, special needs, social interaction and understanding in autism, the empowerment of families of very young children, continuity and progression for children in educational transitions and training for professionals in the field of autism. She has been an international research conference chair, is an invited keynote speaker at a range of conferences, and is published both in early education and in autism. Hilary Fabian The North East Wales Institute Dr Hilary Fabian is Head of Education and Childhood Studies at The North East Wales Institute. She has taught young children in the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Harrow, in Buckinghamshire, in Shropshire and with the Service Children's Education Authority in Germany. Since 1991, she has worked in the university sector, first at The Manchester Metropolitan University where she was course leader for the Early Years Continuing Professional Development programmes, then at The University of Edinburgh and, since 2000, at The North East Wales Institute. She has an MSc degree in Education Management where her dissertation explored staff induction. Her PhD thesis, books and journal publications reflect her interest in educational transitions, particularly children starting school, children transferring between schools and the way in which induction to new settings is managed.
