Exploring transition to postgraduate study: shifting identities in interaction with communities, practice and participation

Tobbell, Jane, O'Donnell, Victoria and Zammit, Maria (2010) Exploring transition to postgraduate study: shifting identities in interaction with communities, practice and participation. British Educational Research Journal, 36 (2). pp. 261-278. ISSN 0141-1926

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Abstract

There has been relatively little research to date that has explored the transition to postgraduate study. This paper reports findings from a project (funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy) that sought to address this gap. The research project was ethnographic and explored university practice and student participation in five UK universities. A significant emergent feature of the research was that a multiplicity of identities construct student experience and contribute to student transition. This finding provides support for learning theory that argues for inextricable links between learning and wider social identities. Moreover, the process of negotiating an academic identity in light of wider experience and university practices emerged as a key factor in understanding transition together with the imperative for independent study, which was a particularly powerful practice that necessitated complex identity negotiations in order to enable full participation in the university community of practice.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Schools:	School of Human and Health Sciences School of Human and Health Sciences > Centre for Applied Psychological Research School of Education and Professional Development > Centre of Lifelong Learning and Social Justice > Policy Research Group
Related URLs:	Author
Depositing User:	Cherry Edmunds
Date Deposited:	21 May 2010 14:40
Last Modified:	06 Aug 2013 11:49
URI:	http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/7750

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