Institutional Habitus and Secondary School Transitions: Comparative Study of Ireland and Estonia

Abstract

This article explores secondary school transitions from a comparative perspective. It focuses on a stage at which a major institutional transition takes place in two different educational systems. Over the years a number of international studies have explored different learning environments and their impact on student educational outcomes. Much of this research explores the impact of school choice and the transition from one level of schooling to another. In general, these studies refer to school transitions as a time when students are particularly vulnerable due to structural and environmental differences between different levels of schooling. In other words, the new learning environments generally have a different ‘institutional habitus’. While seamless and unproblematic transition from one level of schooling to another is seen to ensure students' success at the subsequent level of schooling and beyond, negative experiences and difficulties around adjustment, on the other hand, are shown to result in disengagement and becoming at risk of early school leaving, with detrimental consequences for the individual concerned. Furthermore, different pathways within the educational systems have been found to reproduce unequal life chances. To discuss and re-theorise school transitions, the article draws on a large-scale comparative study of the transitions in secondary school in Ireland and Estonia, and utilises a conceptual tool called ‘institutional habitus' to gain better understanding of the processes involved. While the article discusses similarities and differences between children's transition experience in two different countries, it also calls for a careful approach to ‘direct borrowing’ of practices from other countries.