This exploratory research sets out to identify characteristics of the transition undertaken by returning learners as they move away from their workplace and begin embarking on postgraduate study.

The findings stem from a preliminary study carried out at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic amid the many nationwide lockdowns. This data has contributed to the doctoral research currently being pursued by the author; implications for the main study are discussed.

The research questions:

1. What transitional experiences characterise the change from a workplace to higher education?

2. What are the implications of individual-level transitions on higher education organisations’ design of policy and practice?

Populations of learners are growing progressively diverse – with many individuals retreating to education later in life to fulfil various distinct goals. Despite this, little acknowledgment has been given to this transition in the literature. The lack of knowledge available in this area has led to inadequately prepared learners, as is evidenced in this study, as well as clusters of students unaware of the support available to them as they enter the new domain. Formerly, much of the literature has discussed the linear ladder of progression, the move from school or university to the workplace, with little coverage of those individuals shifting between but nonetheless progressing ‘back’ to education.

This research explores the accessibility of the learning experience, taking into account the remote nature of teaching and learning during the pandemic, along with the benefits and barriers that the students were acquainted with as they attempted acculturation and affiliation with their new role and context through a virtual learning environment.

Over the summer term of the 2020-21 academic year, a focus group of postgraduate students was held at a world-leading faculty of education in the UK. While this could only be carried out safely over a virtual platform at the time, the Zoom meeting proved to be a compassionate and comprehensive conversation. Through the exchange of narratives, the participants benchmarked and empathised with one another. The participants’ contributions weren’t short of social cues and gestures either, evidencing how they had adapted to the virtual space after a year of online learning. Bringing the participants together to discuss their experiences in this way provided them with a platform upon which they could reflect, and attempt, if only briefly, to combat the isolation.

To explore the data, a framework of transitions (Anderson, Goodman & Schlossberg, 2012; 2022), organizational culture (Handy, 1991; 1993), and identity was assembled; as the population crossed over into their new context, insight from these three pillars bridged together intellect from across the domains of practice. Schlossberg’s (1981) seminal work on transitions, in particular her model of 4 S’s, has facilitated the analysis of unique coping mechanisms employed by the participants. In discovering the characterisations of the participants’ ‘situations’, data was extracted to build a holistic illustration of the transition process that each returner encountered as they enrolled back into higher education.  

Undertaking this move during the Covid-19 pandemic spurred on a series of unanticipated events for the participants, which required that they drew upon and further sourced assets and coping mechanisms to facilitate their acculturation and engagement with learning during this time. 

The author has since carried out a thematic narrative analysis, following which a series of themes were created in order to retell the lived experiences of the individuals. Through this presentation, the author will be exploring the intricacies of the data, discussing the role that the various virtual environments played in the participants’ transitions, their experience of remote learning, digital pedagogies, and how this mobility contributed to their multi-membership during this unprecedented time.

In the preliminary study of this research, the researcher opted to carry out a virtual focus group of postgraduate students who were progressing towards the end of their programme. It was decided that given the health and safety guidelines set out nationally during the Covid-19 pandemic that this would be the safest way to bring people together to discuss and reflect on their experience of transition. The group of five participants along with the researcher explored the impact of organisational culture on their transition, along with the impact that various support systems and psychological resources had on their ability to cope with the transition. Having experienced predominantly online learning that academic year, it was felt that the students were reasonably accustomed to and comfortable with the technology and the environment in which the data was collected. Following on from this, it was felt that in order to accurately document the transition, a longitudinal approach would be more suitable, and that collecting data over the students’ courses at different points might offer richer and more accurate recollections of the experience. As a result of this, the researcher advertised the main study with a request that participants provide a series of diary entries (one per term) in response to assigned questions, along with a single digital storytelling task that would allow them to provide insight beyond the written word. These three data collections were followed up by a face-to-face (remote) interview, in which the participants had the opportunity to expand, amend, and elaborate on their answers, while the researcher could member-check the data. The researcher has approached this study through a psychosocial lens, which has led to a much wider-ranging understanding of the participants’ experiences, taking into account the fusion of psychological and sociological influences. The researcher was confident that the employment of Schlossberg’s model of 4 S’s could be satisfactorily explored through this lens, and that the four aspects would consider both the subjective and individual encounters. A thematic narrative analysis was carried out in order to best retell the stories of the participants, and to underscore the significant encounters over the transition period. In addition, a constructivist-interpretivist epistemology has been employed.

•Theme 1: control over the learning experience. A number of the participants addressed various aspects of the transition that were bringing about a degree of stress. They shared their efforts to modify their perception of the transition during this time and showed great resilience through their continued commitment to enhancing their learning experience. •Theme 2: feedback. The valued this during their transition; as they moved into the new context, feedback was perceived as a support mechanism, providing guidance and reassurance in the unfamiliar virtual setting. •Theme 3: lasting impressions. This transpired from the participants’ reflections on their former practices, where they explored how former dominant behaviours and dispositions had been carried into the new context. Involvement in established support networks and organisational cultures led to a conflicting experience as they moved through the transition. They drew on a blend of coping mechanisms as they faced culture shock and reverse culture shock. •Theme 4: a full hat stand. As the participants moved away from their former work context into the new and unfamiliar institution, they undertook a number of changes; one change in particular pertained to their growing and modifying identity. A number of notions connected with identity, these included roles, possible selves, membership, liminality, and the process of acculturation and socialisation. •Theme 5: the impact of Covid-19 on the transition. The on-going and uncertain nature of the pandemic had significant influence on the participants’ lives during their transition. Outstanding encounters included their participation in online learning and the new digital pedagogies, along with the experience of living, working, and studying from home, in some instances in unusual environments. The remote nature of this learning experience meant that participants lacked the like-minded interactions with peers, and the distinction between work and home allowing them to manage and balance their commitments.

Anderson, A., Goodman, J. & Schlossberg, N. (2012) Counseling adults in transition: Linking Schlossberg’s theory with practice in a diverse world. New York: Springer Pub. Anderson, M.L., Goodman, J. & Schlossberg, N.K. (2022) Counselling Adults in Transition. 5th edn. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Handy, C. (1991) The Age of Unreason. London, UK: Arrow Business Books. Handy, C. (1993) Understanding Organizations. 4th edn. London, UK: Penguin Books Ltd. Schlossberg, N. (1981) ‘A Model for Analyzing Human Adaptation to Transition’, The Counseling Psychologist, 9(2), pp. 2–18. doi:10.1177/001100008100900202.