Understanding Service Children’s Transitions in Education

In this project, understanding of the lived experiences of service children’s transitions will be explored, with the aim of highlighting what mechanisms may alleviate the key risks associated with mobility. Moreover, this project will explore policy issues which do not adequately address inequalities in service children’s transitions and make recommendations regarding future and existing policy implementation. This project will investigate and highlight the educational risks and benefits associated with service children transitioning through different schools and will explore the challenges which permeate the educational life course of service children influenced by mobility and having to change schools, often in different locations. 

Service families experience a variety of stressors and were often faced with making complex decisions regarding their children’s education, which were often constrained by the demands of the military. Despite evidence suggesting that improvements have been made, challenges in service children’s education still persist. Therefore, the objectives of this project are:

1. To investigate and highlight the educational risks and benefits associated with service children transitioning through different schools.
2. To establish what challenges, if any, permeate the educational life course of service children as influenced by mobility.
3. To determine what mechanisms may alleviate the key risks associated with mobility and the impact of having to change schools.
4. To identify policy issues which do not adequately address inequalities in service children’s transitions and to establish any potential recommendations regarding future and existing policy implementation.

The study is mixed methods. 

• What are the educational risks and benefits associated with service children transitioning through different schools?
• What are the challenges, if any, that permeate the educational life course of service children as influenced by mobility?
• What are the mechanisms that may alleviate the key risks associated with mobility and the impact of having to change schools?
• What are the policy issues which do not adequately address inequalities in service children’s transitions, and what recommendations regarding future and existing policy implementation could potentially be made?

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