Transition with Dignity: From Special School to Community Life Understood in Partnership with Individuals with Significant Disabilities

Abstract

At the critical life stage of leaving school, many young adults are excited for their future. This is not always the case, however, for students with significant disability. After a systematic literature review of transition research, two essential concerns arose: Students with significant disability experience dismal outcomes compared to their mainstream peers, and they have been alienated from their own transition planning, as well as from the pertaining research. The purpose of this study was to examine transition from the perspectives of those living the experience. Six-month ethnography was guided by three young men, who exited segregated special schools into the early stage of adult life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Fieldwork involved extensive observation and adapted interviews tailored to each young man. Data were also collected from transition informants (parents, teachers, transition providers), and review of key artefacts (documents, photographs, video). Working in partnership, the young men reclaimed their position as experts on their own transition. Their voices, whether audible or non-verbal, were privileged above all others. Analysis was conducted in multiple, inductive and deductive, waves. Using an inductive approach, two themes emerged that impacted the three transitions: trialling post-school options and a lack of collaboration between transition partners called here, silos. Deductive analysis framed by the capability approach (Nussbaum, 2000; Sen, 1999) involved noticing and naming the young men’s personal capabilities, then reviewing the way they informed each transition. While individual transition experiences varied, insufficient trialling of post-school options hindered the young men’s sense of belonging in post-school life. This issue was exacerbated by the lack of collaboration between those who planned transition, to the extent that teachers and the students themselves were excluded. Case narratives were used to articulate the difference in experiences of each young man, tied together by unifying transition artefacts of timetable organisers. The research findings were considered alongside prior research in order to form a counternarrative. Commonly understood transition experiences for individuals with significant disability were refuted, holding practical, theoretical, and methodological implications. Reconceptualised transitions were grounded in the genuine opportunities each young man could have to construct a thriving life of personal priority. A transition with dignity.