School Transition
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
The process of moving from one school to another, involving academic, social, and psychological adjustment. In internationally mobile families, school transitions are typically more frequent, more disruptive, and more complex than in settled populations, often involving changes of curriculum, language of instruction, grading system, and peer culture simultaneously.
Comparable terms
School change (education — general, non-theoretical equivalent) · Educational transition (education — broader; includes transitions between school stages, e.g. primary to secondary) · School mobility (research — emphasizes the pattern of repeated movement) · Academic disruption (HR/mobility — functional framing) · New school adjustment (counseling, education — experiential framing)
Why this matters
School transitions are more frequent and disruptive for globally mobile children than for peers. Each move affects learning, friendships, and identity at the same time. Designing support around these transitions reduces academic disruption and emotional fallout.
Cross-references
Transition Program (Education); Educational Continuity (Education); Departure Cycle (Transitions & Mobility); SEN/SEND (Education); Anticipatory Grief (Wellbeing & Mental Health). Transition programs are the institutional response to the challenge of school transition — structured provision designed to support both arrival and departure. Educational continuity is what school transition disrupts; the departure cycle entry documents the family-level emotional process that runs in parallel with the child’s school departure experience. SEN/SEND describes the population most vulnerable to disruption in school transition; anticipatory grief documents the emotional experience (in both children and parents) that begins well before the physical move.
Sources
Fail, H., Thompson, J., & Walker, G. (2004). Belonging, identity and third culture kids: Life histories of former international school students. Journal of Research in International Education, 3(3), 319–338. Addresses school transitions as a recurring feature of the TCK experience with lasting identity implications.
McLachlan, D.A. (2007). Global nomads in an international school: Families in transition. Journal of Research in International Education, 6(2), 233–249.
« Back