Transition practices of sending and receiving teachers for school readiness.

Abstract

Reforms in the Mauritian education sector have brought major changes in its education system. The lower birth rate has decreased the enrolment at preschools and primary schools, but the increase in number of schools has led to more pressure on transitions of children for sending and receiving teachers. Early childhood education is not being given due importance. Since the Millennium Development Goals on early years’ education aim to achieve universal primary education, there is a need to ensure and promote school readiness and transition. The first research themes identified for the literature review are, “School Readiness”, “National Curriculum Frameworks and Transition Practices”, “Teacher-focused Transition Model” and “The Need for Preparing Children for Primary Schools”. The underpinning theory for the study is “Consequential Transitions Theory” of King Beach. The research gap is that a comprehensive study could not be found which suggests a mechanism enabling smooth transition of children through practices of sending and receiving teachers, and the theoretical premise gap is that there is a dearth of scholarly literature addressing the transition from preschool to primary school through consequential transition. The research problem is “What approach should be adopted to enable school readiness in children for transition from preschools to primary schools through transition practices?” and the research question is, “What should be a framework for transition practices of sending and receiving teachers for school readiness of children?”. The research objective is to formulate a framework for school readiness of children through transition practices of sending and receiving teachers. A qualitative research design has formulated a framework for school readiness of children. Through framework analysis, five themes emerged and resulted in the core concept “Transition practices from preschools to primary schools”. Data is interpreted based on each category. The findings have been summarised per research questions. A transfer scheme has been developed where observation grids have been constructed tailor-made for teachers from each setting. The study contributes to the transition from preschools to primary schools by addressing through school readiness of children.