Abstract
The theoretical stance underpinning a research study impacts on what features of transition are seen as important, the data that are gathered and how they are analysed. This chapter sets out the ecological and sociocultural theoretical approaches that underpin my own transitions research and also acknowledges the relevance of ideas about cultural capital and rites of passage. I discuss some of the issues and challenges arising from this theoretical position and outline some current and anticipated future research directions and policy implications. Within this discussion I trace my own changing preoccupations from understanding the potential chasm between the cultures of early childhood education and school in New Zealand to the possibility of building bridges across the chasm to support children’s transition journeys and more recently to the possibility of developing borderlands of shared understandings and negotiated space between early childhood education and school.
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Peters, S. (2014). Chasms, Bridges and Borderlands: A Transitions Research ‘Across the Border’ from Early Childhood Education to School in New Zealand. In: Perry, B., Dockett, S., Petriwskyj, A. (eds) Transitions to School - International Research, Policy and Practice. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7350-9_8
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