This proposal addresses the relationship between transition and education by focusing on the key role that some programs play on the youth transition to adulthood; as they are strongly linked to several educational and professional paths and, therefore, to differential modalities of transitions. Modalities of transitions have been widely studied and conceptualized in the European Union (Casal et al. 2006, du Bois-Reymond and López Blasco, 2004, Stauber and Walther, 2006), being our aim to relate them with social justice, understood as a three-dimensional concept which includes distribution, recognition and participation (Fraser, 2008).

Having this idea as the basis of our work, we specify the description of transitions by mapping the programs in the city of Valencia (Spain). This geographical description is not only relevant as a map itself, but also because of the potential information that it gives in order to know how modalities of transitions are differentially distributed in an specific context (Valencia) in the framework of the Spanish educational system. That is, having the information of the distribution of the programs, we want to relate it with the differential distribution of opportunities, assuming that some programs are initially related to specific modalities of transitions.

The first objective of this work is to describe the geographical situation of educational programs in the city of Valencia through a map that allows us to analyse how different modalities of transitions are distributed within the city. This map will be the tool through which we can afford our second objective: the analysis of the programs themselves. Thus, once we have the distribution of the programs within the city, we can select those districts where all the programs take place to analyse their different pedagogical practices.

The theoretical framework of this proposal is based on two main concepts: transitions and social justice. The connection of both is the main aim of our work, as we try to analyse transitions having social justice as our theoretical positioning. In this proposal we will specify this connection by focusing on the distribution of the programs; being the distribution one of the dimensions through which we describe and understand social justice. 

In the definition of the concept of transition we follow the proposal of the research group GRET(Group of Research on Education and Work, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). Two main concepts are in the basis of the understanding of transitions in this proposal: itineraries and trajectories (Casal et al. 2006a, 2006b). We emphasize their differentiation, as it is the way to specify our research: while the first one addresses the path done until the present moment; the second one refers to the possible paths that can be done; that is, to all the options the person has to continue and develop her or his transition. The role the educational programs play in increasing or undermining these options is on the basis of our understanding of the connection between education and transitions.

The second main concept of this work is social justice, which we address by following the proposal of Nancy Fraser. On the basis of her definition of social justice as parity of participation (Fraser, 2008), the author identifies three dimensions of social justice: the economical (distribution), the cultural (recognition) and the political (representation).  We are going to focus in this proposal the first dimension, that is, in distribution. Although we strongly believe in participation as the key dimension for the development of socially just transitions, distribution is also a useful dimension and a necessary first step to analyse the way educational policies specify social justice through the development of programs.

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